Angel Season Six
by melodrome
Summary: Welcome to Wolfram and Hart: Backdrop Dimension. Angel and some of the gang wake up very much alive in another dimension, where things are pretty much the same and full of bad luck. Script format. [On hiatus.]
1. 6x01: Power: Act One

**6x01: Power (1) -- Act One**

TEASER

INT. METICULOUS LAB

Very white, very clean and, for some reason, very light, despite the lack of windows. It appears empty aside from the normal lab stuff such as metal tables, cabinets, etc. There is nothing or no one here; no sound except that of the fluorescent lights. Continue pan for a few seconds, followed by a blinding flash of light.

Suddenly we see WESLEY in the room. He is lying on one of the tables, gasping for breath. He's sporting a significant amount of blood down his front. He does, however, have a particularly fond look in his eye and a strange smile on his face, a combination of joy and pain. He breathes for a moment, and then frowns. Fred is not looking down at him fondly anymore. She isn't there crying for his pain as he dies. He isn't, in fact, dead. He's breathing just fine. A brief patting of his stomach shows that he's healed quite quickly as well. Lifting up his bloodstained shirt unnecessarily, a scar is revealed, but nothing more. Wesley appears in perfect physical health.

He closes his eyes hard as he realizes this and lies back on the table for a moment, rubbing his hands across his face. He should be dead, or at the very least, sporting some kind of stitches. Or clean clothing if he's been out for months as seemed to be apparent. There doesn't appear to be any sort of explanation for his appearance; there is no medical equipment around, and his perception of time is still as though he magicked Cyvus Vail into a corner ninety seconds ago.

Wesley sighs heavily and finally gets up to have a look around. The lab is Fred's, though slightly rearranged. He realizes this and immediately frowns. He goes for the door and finds it locked from the outside. He is trapped inside the room.

He turns back to face the lab again, searching for a suitable escape point. Instead his eyes reach a FAMILIAR FEMALE SHAPE in a lab coat with long, wavy, brown hair with her back turned to him. She holds a clipboard. Wesley looks away.

WESLEY  
Illyria—

The female turns around and screams. Wesley does the same shortly thereafter. The woman in front of him is not Illyria in Fred's form, though the resemblance to Fred is striking. The hair is the same, but she wears no glasses and has a differently shaped face.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN  
Geez. Give a girl a heart attack.

WESLEY  
I… I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else.

The unidentified woman smiles genuinely, though skeptically, and turns her head slightly sideways as though in curiosity.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN  
Well, I tend to be the only one who comes in here. I think everyone's scared of the lab for some reason. Um… I'm sorry, but who are you?

WESLEY  
Erm… my name's Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, I'm head of research here.

The unidentified woman smiles warmly now and crinkles her nose in amusement. But, my, doesn't she look like Fred when she smiles. She hurriedly puts down her clipboard and starts towards Wesley, her hand outstretched.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN  
Oh geez, how rude of me. I'm Alexa. Um, Troy. Alexa Troy. I'm the temporary head of the science division. Or, at least, I keep hoping I'm the temporary head of the science division… no one except me is really saying anything about temporary. Science just isn't my thing, you know… at least not according to me. I don't know… I'm good at it, but it's just not what I enjoy doing. …Oh no, I'm babbling. It happens a lot. I babble. Especially in the presence of… well. Needless to say, we've been expecting you.

WESLEY  
Needless to say? …I'm sorry, Miss Troy is it? But I find myself completely in the dark… I wonder if you might elabourate a tad.

ALEXA  
…They didn't tell you?

WESLEY  
Tell me… what, exactly?

Alexa's expression turns from pleasant to very serious and a little bit humiliated. She blows air from out of her cheeks and sits down as though dizzy.

ALEXA  
Oh, boy. Oh, oh boy. Oh… okay. Well, um… you might want to sit down for this, Mister Wyndam-Pryce. We have a lot to go through.

Wesley frowns and sits in the only other chair in the room, across from Alexa. He notices how pale she is. Her breathing is slightly laboured and her hands rap silently against the arms of the chair as she thinks. Finally she sighs heavily.

ALEXA _(cont'd)_  
All right. May I call you Wesley?

WESLEY  
Of course.

ALEXA  
Good. Good. I don't know why I asked that now, but it seemed like a good way to start. Okay, okay. Now, this is going to come as a bit of a shock to you, but… as of about three minutes ago, you are completely, entirely, and very…

She pauses and sighs again. She sits up straighter in her chair and looks Wesley in the eye, keeping a more formal way of speaking. Her voice is clear and confident as she says:

ALEXA  
You're dead, Wesley.

Cut to Wesley, whose expression turns from concerned to one of surprise and perhaps even slight disbelief. Dramatic music plays; fade to credits.

END OF TEASER

---

ACT ONE

INT. ANGEL'S OFFICE

Except that it's not. Nearly everything is the same, including the BOSS, an attractive man who looks similar to Angel sitting at the desk, writing furiously. The man is not, in fact, Angel, and this is fairly apparent. We have no idea who the man is. That's okay. Soon the man picks up the piece of paper he was writing so fervently upon and adds it to the massive stack of other papers to his right. Promptly he takes another sheet from the pile on the left, only slightly smaller than the other one. Sighing, the man begins writing again.

A DITZY GIRL with long black hair scurries into the man's office. The look on her face portrays that she has something urgent to say, but she's hesitant to because she's afraid of what the man's reaction will be.

DITZY GIRL  
Hey, boss. Busy?

BOSS  
Yes. What is it, Melody?

MELODY  
_(fidgeting)_  
Um… there's a… a thing… and it's… well, it's here now, and I thought you might want to… to know…

BOSS  
Then you should probably tell me what it is before I finish this sente—

MELODY  
There's a feed coming in on the Inter-dimensional!

The boss stops writing abruptly. He puts down his pen very slowly and clasps his hands without looking up at his secretary. He sighs slowly and glances up at Melody through glaring eyes.

BOSS  
Put it on.

Melody brings her hands out from behind her back and unrolls the slightly tattered scroll in front of her, looking nervous and wishing like hell she was in another room. She swallows heavily and stands up straighter. Finally a picture begins to come through and illuminate the scroll.

A DEMON sporting a top hat sits behind a desk, looking very serious and seeming to stare right at the boss. He opens his mouth as though to speak but instead reveals a smaller mouth inside that does the talking.

NEWSCASTER  
_We have some breaking news for you now… The CEO of a Wolfram and Hart branch in Dimension 5074 has ordered his employees to begin killing off members of the Black Thorn. In a brief conversation with the Senior Partners, they reassured us that a team was being sent immediately to rectify the situation. They also stated that this mutiny would have no impact on The Apocalypse, but would give us no further information. We'll have more on this story as the day progresses._

Melody rolls up the scroll and looks hesitantly at the boss. He is motionless for a few moments, and then blinks and rubs his face.

BOSS  
How long ago did that come in?

MELODY  
I brought it here as soon as I got it.

BOSS  
That's not what I asked.

MELODY  
I… I don't know, about half an hour ago?

The boss crosses his arms and nods, deep in thought. Melody glances around nervously as he figures things out.

BOSS  
They'll be here soon.

MELODY  
Really soon, if the Senior Partners are sending a "team".

BOSS  
What do you think I should do?

MELODY  
If I was in your place, boss, I'd run.

BOSS  
Good answer.

The boss stands up abruptly and walks over to the elevator, pressing the "up" button calmly.

BOSS_ (cont'd)_  
I'm going to completely disappear, Melody. You won't ever hear from me again. Understood?

MELODY  
Absolutely.

BOSS  
…Unless you wanted to come...

MELODY  
Oh… oh, no, I couldn't. I mean, I appreciate the opportunity and all, but even if I do get eviscerated, at least I'll be eviscerated at home, you know? Besides, prophecies have been wrong before.

BOSS  
This one isn't. But I appreciate your optimism. If you do make it through this, tell everyone you witnessed me being turned inside out, followed by my disappearing through the floor.

MELODY  
Got it.

BOSS  
If you do change your mind and decide to run, the keys to the Porsche are in the top left hand drawer of my desk. The keys to the liquor cabinet are in the top right. Anything else you need is yours; it's not Angel's, and not anybody else's. Any questions?

MELODY  
Yeah. One. Why did I have to be born into a backdrop dimension?

The boss looks Melody in the eye with a grim expression on his face. The quaint ding of the elevator as the doors open punctuates the infrequent glint in his eye. He attempts a smile and steps forward into the elevator without responding. The doors close and the elevator begins its slow ascent to the penthouse apartment upstairs. Melody stands in her boss' office for a second and calmly begins to leave the room when screams rip down the elevator shaft. A series of "shlop" type noises follow each scream, making her stop in her tracks, a look of horror etched on her face.

MELODY  
Oh God. I'm—

Hard cut back to

INT. METICULOUS LAB  
ANGLE: Wesley's face.

WESLEY  
--dead?

ALEXA  
Yes.

WESLEY  
…This is it? This is the afterlife?

ALEXA  
Well… in a way.

WESLEY  
How disappointing.

ALEXA  
_(smiling)_  
In a way.

She stares unequivocally at him, apparently fascinated with how well he's taking it all. She notices that he's in extraordinary avoidance of eye contact with her. Every time he does manage it, there's a strange recognition and a great deal of pain in that sea of cool blue. A silence falls between them.

WESLEY  
This is, at least, an alternate dimension, I assume?

ALEXA  
It is.

WESLEY  
And this is a Wolfram and Hart branch, correct?

ALEXA  
Yesiree.

WESLEY  
So I can only assume that in signing that contract a year ago, I also signed away my afterlife?

ALEXA  
Either spending 18 hours a day researching wasn't enough for you, or you've learned this from personal experience. Let me guess… Lilah Morgan?

Oh, sure. So_ now_ he makes eye contact.

WESLEY  
Surely she isn't—

ALEXA  
She's not here, no. She signed a very different contract. She has to spend eternity working for Wolfram and Hart, whereas your mortality has been restored. Next time you die, you stay dead.

WESLEY  
At least that's something.

ALEXA  
Ooh, I really wouldn't be happy with that, Wesley. You won't have your soul sent off to the Valley of. You'll be dead. Just… dead. There won't be anything. No joy, no pain. You'll just be perfectly aware of how much nothing there truly is, and you'll go mad because of it.

WESLEY  
And if I hadn't signed the contract?

ALEXA  
Are you aware of the Valley of the Souls?

WESLEY  
I believe it's called the Ether these days.

ALEXA  
The Valley, the Ether, whatever. That's where your soul would have gone. The soul and the mind are very different entities; your soul would be simply secured, and your mind would go off to a heaven or hell, without mortality or a true corporeal form. But when you signed that contract, you signed your mind, your soul, _and_ your body over to Wolfram and Hart to use at their own disposal. Your strength lies in your mind, and they wanted to use that to their advantage, so they… reincarnated you exactly as you were.

WESLEY  
So… everything here is exactly as it was in my dimension?

Alexa breaks into very sudden laughter. Wesley jumps ever so slightly, and then smiles back at her. Her laugh is very warm, and though he's perfectly aware that she's mocking him ever so slightly, it makes him feel better about being… dead.

ALEXA  
No, no. You're the constant; the dimension is never so.

WESLEY  
Oh, I am aware of that, but in terms of Wolfram and Hart, things are surely similar.

ALEXA  
Um… yeah, I guess they are. Similar.

Wesley frowns at her response. It seemed forced, which was strange because there was no reason for which an answer like that should have been. Now it's her who isn't making eye contact. He opens his mouth to say that she didn't sound so sure, but his thoughts are interrupted by a gasp from behind him. He turns around to see GUNN on the same table he appeared on, short of breath and figuring out that he hadn't just been impaled with five swords at once. In fact, the mortal wounds he just had were strangely healed already.

GUNN  
…What the…

WESLEY  
What happened?

GUNN  
…Wes? What are you doing here? …What am _I_ doing here?

WESLEY  
I'll explain all that in a moment. Right now I need you to tell me exactly what happened.

GUNN  
Illyria said you were dead.

WESLEY  
I am. You are too. Under what circumstances, Charles? What's happening?

GUNN  
I… I guess I was impaled. I mean, I killed my guys with a bit of a hitch, but I got to the alley all right. Then there was this big freaking army of demons coming at us, complete with a dragon or two. I guess I was the first one down. What happened to you? Did you kill Vail?

WESLEY  
I… I'm not sure. I think he killed me first. But Fr… Illyria was there, she probably finished him off.

ALEXA  
Oh my GOD.

Alexa scurries hurriedly from the room. Gunn watches after with a raised eyebrow.

GUNN  
Who's that?

WESLEY  
Alexa Troy. She's head of Science.

Gunn looks away for a moment and tries to decide whether he should say it. Wesley interprets the gesture.

WESLEY _(cont'd)_  
She looks a lot like Fred. Especially when she laughs. They sound completely different, so it's easier not to look at her.

There is a pause in memoriam for Fred. For a moment, neither Wesley nor Gunn look at anything but the floor. Soon Gunn collects his wits about him.

GUNN  
So, why are we sitting in the newly grounded Wolfram and Hart building if we're dead, and why wasn't I informed that we found a new head of Science that looks like Fred?

WESLEY  
We signed over our afterlives when we collaborated with Wolfram and Hart.

GUNN  
Why doesn't that surprise me?

WESLEY  
We're in an alternate dimension… though the "alternate" element still escapes me. Judging by the amount of noise outside, I'd estimate that we're still in the equivalent of Los Angeles. …How many demons did you say there were?

GUNN  
A lot. Too many. There's no way anyone could have survived that, even Illyria.

WESLEY  
She likely wouldn't transfer. Illyria was never a part of Wolfram and Hart.

GUNN  
But Fred was. Maybe…

WESLEY  
No. Fred's soul was destroyed. An entity can't exist without all three main attributes. If Fred was here, there would only be her… physical form. No mind, no soul. She wouldn't…

Wesley glances away for a moment, staring at the wall behind Gunn. Suddenly he notices that there seems to be a shower of dust falling around Gunn, which is especially strange for a room that was incredibly clean only moments before.

WESLEY _(cont'd)_  
Get off the table.

Frowning but not asking questions, Gunn gets off the table and stands beside Wesley, trying to follow his line of sight. Instantly he, too, sees the strange falling of dust that seemed to be emanating from the ceiling.

GUNN  
Maybe asbestos is a client.

The two men continue to stand and stare at the metal table as the dust continues to accumulate. A pattern is noticeable; the basic shape of a man is being formed.

GUNN _(cont'd)_  
So you figure this is Spike or Angel?

WESLEY  
Both, perhaps?

GUNN  
Oh God. Now that's a notion I don't think anyone would like.

A slow smile spreads across Wesley's face as the image of a two-headed, four-legged Spangel creature beating itself up pops into his head. He looks over at Gunn and sees a similar expression of amusement on his face. He chuckles under his breath. It's the first time since Fred died that he's actually laughed. It's a strange sensation. Alexa interrupts the moment, however, when she slams the door to the lab as she enters, looking serious and slightly urgent.

ALEXA  
Is he here yet?

GUNN  
Is who here yet?

ALEXA  
You know very well who. The vampire with a soul.

GUNN  
…We're expecting a couple of them, actually.

ALEXA  
_(frowning)_  
The prophecy only calls for one.

WESLEY  
What prophecy?

ALEXA  
The Unulat Prophecy.

WESLEY  
Never heard of it.

ALEXA  
You wouldn't have. It's exclusive to this dimension, about this dimension. It almost always relates back to Wolfram and Hart, but this one… it's section A of the prophecy. It's the first thing you read in the Unulat text. It states, quite cleanly and simply: the vampire with a soul will come with a small army to infiltrate this backdrop dimension. Well, actually, I guess it's not that clean and simple since it's in a pretty complex language, but that's the polished and simplified version. The thing it isn't clear on is whether the infiltration will cause evil or good. A lot of people are really scared because of what happened when… a month or two ago, but the scared ones are the evil ones, anyway. I'm only here because I have to be. I work on the side of good, and I'm assuming that you do too, otherwise you wouldn't have attempted to bring the Black Thorn down. Ah, that's the one.

ANGEL  
What do you mean, attempted?

Wesley and Gunn whirl around to regard the table where the dust had been falling. A now constructed Angel stands up slowly; two very large, very round red marks are on either side of his neck. Gunn grins.

GUNN  
Dragon get the best of you?

ANGEL  
Only after I took it down.

GUNN  
Cool. …Wait, how's that work?

ANGEL  
To tell the truth, I'm not too sure how any of this is working. What do you mean, attempted?

ALEXA  
Well, they're not all dead, are they?

ANGEL  
There are no members of the Black Thorn remaining on that plain of existence. We achieved our goal, and we all died in the process. That's all you need to understand. I, on the other hand, am pretty much in the dark regarding everything, especially why I'm in a room I know to be destroyed with two people I know for a fact to be dead when I myself just got killed.

VOICE (O.C.)  
All your questions will be answered with time.

Angel, Wesley and Gunn all turn around to regard the source of the voice. Alexa smiles and hugs a clipboard, happy to have the attention of the angry vampire off her. The camera closes in on a sometimes-blonde woman Angel met only once before.

ANYA  
For now, I need you to come with me, please.

END OF ACT ONE


	2. 6x01: Power: Act Two

ACT TWO 

_2003_

INT. ANYA'S SUNNYDALE APARTMENT

Anya enters and throws her keys in a dish. She sighs heavily, takes off her jacket, and jumps ever so slightly when she finally notices D'HOFFRYN's looming figure in the middle of her living room.

ANYA  
Come to kill me yourself, have you? Demon lackies not doing the job efficiently enough?

D'HOFFRYN  
I never had any intention of killing you, Anyanka. I thought I made that clear when I killed Halfraek in your place.

ANYA  
That explains the demons you sent after me, then.

D'HOFFRYN  
Such an accusation! I was under the impression you knew me better than that, Anyanka. We did, after all, associate for a dozen centuries.

Anya sighs and, sensing a lack of anger in D'Hoffryn's demeanor, lets her guard down and walks a little closer to her former boss.

ANYA  
What do you want, D'Hoffryn?

D'HOFFRYN  
Simply to congratulate you on your audacity.

ANYA  
What, you want to rub it in my face that I lost my powers? That I fell in love? That I lost my powers… again? I thought you'd done that enough already.

D'HOFFRYN  
You should be forever haunted by these facts, Anyanka. But no, I'm here on a different matter.

D'Hoffryn smiles falsely and conjures a scroll. It's obviously a few centuries old. Anya's expression changes instantly from tired exasperation to alert mortification.

D'HOFFRYN _(cont'd)  
_I was in my quarters the other day when some insolent demon approached me. I was about to kill him when he presented this to me. I found it most illuminating. I can only assume by the look on your face that you'd simply forgotten about it.

ANYA  
I had.

D'HOFFRYN  
That was immediately clear to me. I thought that certainly you would have been much less hesitant to hand over your immortality, not once, but twice, if you were able to recall that you'd signed your life over to the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart.

ANYA  
I signed my death over. Not my life.

D'HOFFRYN  
Centuries as a vengeance demon and still it escapes you that life and death are one and the same.

ANYA  
Get out.

D'HOFFRYN  
Whatever inspired you to do such a thing, Anyanka?

ANYA  
Leave. Now.

D'HOFFRYN  
This is not a small matter. Soon the tides will change, and you'll have desperately regretted your insolence.

ANYA  
Do you seriously have nothing better to do?

D'HOFFRYN  
I am doing you a favour. You'd best watch yourself, Anyanka. Death is not elusive. Surely you're aware of that much.

Anya looks up and D'Hoffryn is gone. She stands in her living room for a moment and catches her breath. She runs a hand through her hair and there is an immediate cut to the

_Present_

INT. WOLFRAM AND HART LOBBY

Anya leads Angel, Wesley, Gunn and Alexa out of an elevator and through the lobby, identical to that of the L. A. offices. A few other people/demons are milling about, but no one pays any attention to the other.

ANYA  
So when I died last year, I woke up lying on that metal table without having the slightest idea as to what was going on. Of course, the boss set me straight… strange now that I can't remember his name since he's been eviscerated. Anyway, he was the former CEO.

WESLEY  
Why was he eviscerated?

ANYA  
He was destined to. Since the first one a couple months ago, people have been pretty on edge. It's both amusing and annoying. That seemed to be the only one, though, until today; suddenly the boss, the head of research and the head of the law department all got their insides turned outside. The stench was terrible; they only just got the lobby cleaned up.

ANGEL  
So you're the new liason?

ANYA  
Yep. Immortal again. I don't really see the point, though; Xander's not here, he's too busy in Africa to pay any attention to the fact that I'm dead. He was supposed to die, too. It was supposed to be all romantic, and we'd maybe get married in the afterlife because it's not like he'd have to worry about the rest of his life or anything.

Anya stops in front of the doors to what had been Angel's office in L. A. and whirls around to regard the people behind her.

ANYA _(cont'd)  
_What is wrong with him? First he won't marry me, and then he goes and gets all sexy with his money and I have to go and still love him, and okay, we slept together a few times, and then he doesn't even die when I do! He just cries for months and then goes to Africa and starts "helping people". I mean really!

GUNN  
Yeah, he sure sounds unreasonable to me.

ANYA  
Thank you! See? I'm not the crazy one! He is!

ANGEL  
Yeah, great. Can we go in now?

MELODY  
_(from behind her desk)  
_I don't think you want to do that, actually.

ANYA  
Still smells?

MELODY  
Like a Kragshlog demon. The cleaning crews are still in Pistoll's office.

ANYA  
You'd really think a multi-billion dollar establishment like this would have more than one evisceration cleaning crew. Everyone always underestimates how difficult it is to get spinal fluid out of the carpeting. If they had regular eviscerations around here, maybe they'd understand that it's not just slice and pop when it's done properly.

Pan over everyone's face. Looks of various extremities of disgust are apparent on everyone's features, except Angel's.

ANGEL  
Why don't you just go ahead and tell us about the case out here?

ANYA  
All right. It's not like the documentation will help with the search, anyway.

Anya starts walking again, and after some exchanging of looks, everyone, including a curious Melody, follows suit.  
  
INT. WESLEY'S OFFICE

Everyone files into the room and stands around. Anya opens the cupboards and starts rummaging through for something. Wesley's look is very skeptical.

WESLEY  
This is my office.

ANYA  
Yes. You can sit if you want; Monaie was eviscerated in the lobby.

GUNN  
And no one tried to stop it?

ANYA  
Oh, no one did the eviscerating. She was destined to, like the boss. She was born that way. When you're born into a backdrop dimension, you're provided with a prophecy as explanation and sent on your way. They knew that upon your mutiny in your home dimension, you'd be shipped here to take their places.

GUNN  
Harsh.

ANYA  
Way of life. They were brought up to accept their fate. Aha!

Anya finally brings her head out of the cupboard, along with a stack of newspapers. She drops them on the desk and everyone except Melody and Alexa picks up a paper.

GUNN  
So we_ are _still in L. A.

ANYA  
Yes. Certain events have happened differently than have in your home dimension, so it's not quite the same, but most aspects are pretty much in tact.

ANGEL  
All these papers are reporting some kind of major accident.

ANYA  
Only they're not accidents. The Senior Partners are having trouble with some invisible brigade that they created. A bunch of semi-psychopathic invisible human beings bent on giving the visible world what's coming to them. At first things were going really well… the seven years of training were completed and the invisible people were set out into the commonplace, creating organized genocide and making it look like an accident. But soon that got boring for them; people die too easily. Soon the army turned on their trainers.

ANGEL  
Now they're out of control and the partners are feeling threatened.

ANYA  
Senior partners don't get threatened. Not without repercussions. And unless you and the rest of the scoobies can step up and bring down the invisible army, the repercussions are going to make themselves apparent.

GUNN  
Scoobies?

ANYA  
Sorry. Old habit.

A silence falls as Gunn and Angel read through the articles. Wesley's eyes seem to want to read the article, but they always settle on the strangely silent Alexa. Angel suddenly frowns, checks Gunn's paper, and checks the others in the pile Anya produced.

ANGEL  
These are all from the same date.

WESLEY  
Assuming the time flow is the same here.

ANYA  
It is. Well, actually, there's no such thing as A. M. or P. M. here. It's takes some getting used to… one time someone asked me when a client was scheduled to show up, and I told him two o'clock, and he told me to get out of town. Of course, by the time I realized he wasn't being literal—

ANGEL  
Anya.

ANYA  
Yes?

ANGEL  
Either tell us what you know about the case, or get out.

ANYA  
Oh, no you don't. Just because you used to yell at the liasons at home, doesn't mean you get to yell at me. I don't work for you, buster.

ANGEL  
I'm not—what?

ANYA  
Used to having people stand up to you? Well, I don't care that you're CEO of a majorly evil company. I used to be majorly evil myself you know, I can anticipate anything you throw at me.

ANGEL  
What do you mean, you don't work for me?

ANYA  
Well, I don't. It's not a hard concept to grasp.

ANGEL  
I thought you said I was CEO.

ANYA  
You are.

ANGEL  
And that everything at this branch was exactly as it was in L. A.

ANYA  
It is.

ANGEL  
Then explain the part where you don't work for me again, because my other liasons to the Senior Partners did. They may not have always been loyal to me… actually, I haven't found a loyal one yet…

ANYA  
Hamilton was, more or less.

ANGEL  
He tried to kill me.

ANYA  
But he wasn't working for you at that point.

ANGEL  
I never received any resignation.

ANYA  
That's because you resigned from him, not the other way around.

ANGEL  
Anya, I'm in short supply of both time and patience, so maybe you should just get to the point.

ANYA  
Hamilton tried to kill you _after_ your appointment to the Black Thorn. Therefore, he didn't work for you anymore at that point. I don't understand why this is a difficult concept for you. I get it.

ANGEL  
What does the Black Thorn have to do with any of this?

ANYA  
You mean no one explained?

ANGEL  
Anya…

ANYA  
There's a reason that the Senior Partners sent a team that massive to take you down. The Black Thorn isn't just a secret society. It's an elite society, of fairly epic scale. Every member receives a special status according to their interests or career choice. The Senator wasn't made Senator _before_ her appointment to the Black Thorn. There are no coincidences in the business of evil.

WESLEY  
So when you say it was Angel who resigned from Hamilton…

GUNN  
What you really mean is that Angel's above a liason to the Senior Partners.

A pause as everyone tries to let this sink in. Wesley and Gunn try fervently to figure it out. Wesley's reflexive glances at Alexa, however, show him that she doesn't seem as surprised as the others.

WESLEY  
You've been awfully quiet, Alexa. Surely you have some light to shed on the matter?

ALEXA  
_(sighing nervously)  
_The… the prophecy states that the vampire with a soul will come with a small army to infiltrate—

GUNN  
Yeah, yeah. We've heard that part already.

ALEXA  
…Not all of it.

WESLEY  
You hid some aspects from us before.

ALEXA  
I didn't _hide_ them, per se…

ANGEL  
Fine, you just conveniently didn't include some things in your explanation. Phrase it however you want. I think we'd all like to know, however, what exactly it is you didn't tell us.

ALEXA  
Look, just chill, okay? I'm not the enemy here.

ANGEL  
But you're starting to make yourself look that way.

ALEXA  
Okay! Okay. The Unulat prophecy is… is only one aspect of this dimension's predictions. It deals with only things relating to Wolfram and Hart… on the topmost scale. Angel isn't just CEO anymore… he's made Junior Partner.

A beat. Then a hard cut to

INT. HOSPITAL FLOOR

The third floor, to be precise. It's very clean, as hospitals tend to be; equipment lining the halls, nurses milling calmly about. Suddenly the camera descends through the floor; we see the second floor, a similar scene, scroll by before the camera disappears through the floor again; and past the first floor; and finally into the basement. A strange beeping, perhaps like a heartrate monitor is heard. Broken bedframes are splayed carelessly about; the cement walls and lone lightbulb in the middle of the room present a much different scene from the first three floors. It's abysmal. A pan shot of the stained mattresses, moldy blankets, pillows and their stuffing everywhere, and finally a broken table—with a bomb sitting upon it. The source of the rhythmic beeping.

A chuckle is heard. The camera follows a series of depressions on a set of mattresses leading up to the one tiny window in the room; the window is propped open as depressions on the grass outside become apparent. The window slams shut and the bars on the outside are replaced. A pair of chuckles are heard now, and the invisible culprits run away.

ANGLE: the bomb.  
Fifty-eight minutes on the digital readout ticks down to fifty-seven. Dramatic music to end the scene.

END OF ACT TWO  



	3. 6x01: Power: Act Three

ACT THREE 

_July, 1776_

EXT. CLEARING - NIGHT

Anya (or, Anyanka, at this point) is listening to a WOMAN talk about her husband. All around them, merry celebration is going around; men, women and children alike are shouting, laughter is heard, etc, etc.

WOMAN  
He loves this damn country more than he loves me.

ANYANKA  
Uh-huh.

WOMAN  
All he does anymore is fight wars and rage about Britain and how stupid it is. I have needs, too. I just wish…

ANYANKA  
Uh-huh?

WOMAN  
…that he would ask me how my day was, just once.

ANYANKA  
Well, that's no fun.

WOMAN  
All he does is talk about what he did. "I'm going to battle next week. Hey, remember that time I went to battle a while ago?"_  
(sighing)  
_Daniel always paid ample attention to me. I miss him.

ANYANKA  
Ooh, do you wish he'd come back?

WOMAN  
He's dead, dear.

ANYANKA_  
(feigning surprise)  
_Oh. I'm… sorry.

WOMAN  
Me too. I mean, I love George, but sometimes I just wish he'd…

ANYANKA  
Uh-huh?

WOMAN  
…forget about stupid America.

ANYANKA  
You're just full of really boring wishes, aren't you?

WOMAN  
So what if we're a country now? He'll expect a feast every day from now until death do us part. Hmph. I wish… his teeth would turn to wood so he couldn't reasonably eat a feast anym—

ANYANKA  
Done.

But before the future Lady Washington can catch a glimpse of the vengeance demon's face, Anyanka feels a hand tug at her arm. Taken by surprise, she stumbles into the wood and gets pushed against a tree by a MAN in formal wear.

MAN  
What are you doing?

ANYANKA  
My job. Now beat it. I think I was getting somewhere with…

Anyanka turns to glance at the woman, who, looking bewildered, begins to walk away. She would shortly forget about the encounter altogether until she spotted her husband some hours later.

ANYANKA _(cont'd)  
_Damnit. Now look what you've done. She was promising. That whole teeth turning into wood thing sounded painful…

MAN  
You are aware of what happened only a few eves ago, aren't you?

ANYANKA  
Sure. Some declaration or something was signed, now this is a country rather than a colony, blah, blah, blah, so what? Who are you, anyway?

MAN  
I'm an associate with Wolfram and Hart, with whom I'm sure you're familiar.

ANYANKA  
Oh, yeah. An evil prophecy cult, right? Constantly planning for the apocalypse centuries in the future… don't know why you're bothering to plan for it now…

WOLFRAM AND HART GUY  
Well, since you're familiar with our operation, perhaps you understand that we have to have everything happen in a quite precise manner. You were interfering with the order of events. We had to stop you.

ANYANKA  
If you think you can stop me from being a vengeance demon, you've got another thing coming, pal. I don't care who you are or what you control, but I'll perform vengeance on whomever I choose, so…

WOLFRAM AND HART GUY  
We don't care about your duties in general, madam. Just that one gentleman needs to be left more or less alone. He was one of the key players in making this land a nation, and he's going to be one of the key players in the development of the country. We need the United States of America to turn out in just a certain way, and any more variables in our plan could send the universe spinning quite impressively out of control. And we wouldn't want that.

ANYANKA  
Why not? Sounds like a picnic to me.

WOLFRAM AND HART GUY  
Because if the universe explodes, you explode too. And even a vengeance demon can't live through that.

ANYANKA  
…I see your point. So, what do you want from me? I'll leave that guy alone if that's what you're getting at.

The man reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a scroll of sorts.

WOLFRAM AND HART GUY  
I'm here to make a deal with you. Yes, it includes leaving Commander Washington alone, but it also includes your helping us to sway battles a certain way. Cause some English to die in a freak ship explosion in their way over to America, for example.

ANYANKA  
Why should I help you? What's in it for me?

WOLFRAM AND HART GUY  
It's not what's in it for you, it's what doesn't do you in. In signing this contract, you assure us that you're going to do exactly as we ask you to, because if you don't… well, regardless of whether or not the Universe explodes, we'll make sure you've properly gone kablooey.

ANYANKA  
I'm sorry… am I being threatened? Are you actually stupid enough to_ threaten_ a vengeance demon?

WOLFRAM AND HART GUY  
We're not threatening you, miss. In return for doing us these favours, we'll ensure your non-explosion and make sure you'll meet no other demise. In the event of your unlikely death on this plain, you'll be transported to another one, where your immortality will stay in tact.

Anyanka stands and considers this for a moment. The man waits patiently, smiling intelligently but very annoyingly and holding out the contract and a fountain pen for her to sign the contract.

ANYANKA  
So basically… I cause the death of some few extra people, and you give me an extra life if I ever die?

WOLFRAM AND HART GUY  
In short, yes.

ANYANKA  
But if I don't follow through… you explode me. Forever.

WOLFRAM AND HART GUY  
That's correct.

Anyanka grudgingly takes the pen and signs where the man points. He takes both the pen and paper and places them back inside his jacket, still wearing that annoying smile.

WOLFRAM AND HART GUY _(cont'd)  
_A pleasure, madam. One of our associates will contact you with a time and a place soon.

He walks off deeper into the woods. Anyanka remains motionless, realizing that there was probably more to that contract than what met the eye, ignorant of the celebrations going on behind her. On this shot, we cut to the

_Present_

INT. ANGEL'S OFFICE

Angel sits in a chair behind his desk, staring out the window absently. Pan out to

INT. LOBBY

We see Wesley, Gunn and Anya peering in the window at Angel hesitantly.

GUNN  
He just… threw them out the door?

ANYA  
Two at a time, by their belts. Then he closed the doors without a word and sat down, exactly in that position. He hasn't moved a muscle since.

WESLEY  
And you tried talking to him?

ANYA  
I've been yelling at him fervently through this window for the past ten minutes, complete with exaggerated gesticulations.  
(angrily)  
I don't know what he's so upset about. Junior Partner is a huge step to the top. If he really wants to make a difference, this should be exciting for him. He should be rampant with proclamations such as, "hurray!" or, "what a sizable step in the right direction!" I didn't expect him to stomp not-so-furiously from the room, throw the cleaning crew out on their asses and then _brood_.

GUNN  
You'd be surprised what he can manage to brood about.

ANYA  
He has a case to handle, you know. Those invisible people are causing more trouble than they're worth. He doesn't have time to sit there and think. He has to go kill things! Isn't that what vampires are supposed to do?

Anya pauses, expecting a response, exhaling exasperatedly at the vampire through the window when she didn't get one and stomps off, arms crossed. Gunn watches her go, but his eyes fall instead on Wesley, who seems to just be staring at a point in the carpet.

GUNN  
Admiring the pattern, or just wondering what kind of synthetic fabric it's made out of?

Wesley doesn't respond. He simply stares. Gunn frowns in concern, since the last time Wesley was this bad was when Fred died. Suddenly he made the connection and joined Wesley in staring at the spot in the carpet.

GUNN  
Alexa.

WESLEY  
_(snapping to attention)  
_What about her?

GUNN  
She seemed pretty upset after Angel left like that.

WESLEY  
She shouldn't withhold information like that.

GUNN  
But still. I feel kinda sorry for her, you know? It's not her fault that Angel made Junior Partner. She just happened to be the only one to know about it. Maybe she didn't even make the connection until that point.

WESLEY  
She looked guilty the entire time. I was…

GUNN  
Watching her?

WESLEY  
_(bowing his head)_  
The resemblance is _so striking._

GUNNIt's not her, Wes.

WESLEY  
Don't you think I know that? I know she's gone. I know there's no chance of her coming back. I know that her soul was destroyed by that… that _thing_…

GUNN  
Whoa, we're back to calling Illyria "that thing" now? Whatever happened to I-know-I'll-teach-her-about-humanity-so-she-can-stay-on-this-plain-of-existence Wesley?

WESLEY  
…but it's like she's _here_. It's like a part of her survived. All my certainties and uncertainties are being brought into question by this… one inkling of a prospect. It's stupid of me to let myself question anything, but she spoke like Fred when we first met. It's like she was making the effort to sound like her, to let me know she was somehow… all right. She doesn't sound like that anymore. She sounds secretive and suspicious, but for a minute or two… she sounded just like Fred.  
_(A beat)_  
Angel could use some speaking to. Why don't I do that.

GUNN  
You sure? Probably smells like evisceration in there.

WESLEY  
You should find Anya and get more on the case. I'm sure we'll be out shortly.

Wesley brushes past Gunn and steels himself to go in.

INT. ANGEL'S OFFICE

Wesley slowly exhales through his mouth. He forces back the temptation to gag and keeps his nostrils firmly plugged.

WESLEY _(cont'd)_  
Anya isn't wrong, you know.

He guessed correctly that Angel could and did hear every bit of the conversation they'd had in the hallway.

ANGEL  
Do you remember the speech I gave during that glamour?

WESLEY  
I'm not likely to forget it.

ANGEL  
You may as well. Turns out all of it was a big pile of BS anyway.

WESLEY  
How could that possibly be? We achieved our goal—

ANGEL  
That's exactly what we didn't do. The entire purpose of the exercise was to show the Senior Partners that they didn't own us. Yeah, we killed every member of the Black Thorn… on_ that_ plain. I'm willing to bet they're still alive and kicking here, and that I'm a prominent member, judging by my recent promotion.

WESLEY  
We fought hard. For one fleeting moment, we had control.

ANGEL  
No, we didn't. We thought we had control. But it turns out the entire thing was prophesized the entire time. We were played. The Senior Partners _do_ own us, and in bringing us here to live out our lives again, they've proven it. There's nothing more we can do. We've lost. And in my big plot to bring about a change, I've made myself an even bigger player in the coming apocalypse rather than a smaller one.

WESLEY  
Angel…

ANGEL  
In pulling that stunt, I may have actually _caused_ the end of the world, and in asking you to help me… you and Gunn and everyone else… I've made you a part of it. There isn't a word for how completely I failed. I actually succeeded in the wrong direction.

WESLEY  
Angel.

ANGEL  
You know, in most law firms, I'd have to be a lawyer to make partner, but here? Nah. I just have to be extremely evil. I was fooling myself, all these years having a soul… I was never good. I can never be good. I'm still a vampire, and whether it's voluntary or not…

WESLEY  
_Angel._

ANGEL  
_What?_

Angel finally turns around in his chair to face Wesley and…

ANGEL _(cont'd)_  
Connor?

His son smiles grimly against the smell of dying flesh still hanging in the elevator shaft.

CONNOR  
Hey, dad.

Angel's face remains completely blank. Wesley can see that he's torn between joy and even more hatred at himself; he'd gotten his son killed by his actions, and now somehow he, too, was condemned to a lifetime at Wolfram and Hart. Angel blinked hard and picked a folder off the desk, handing it to Wesley.

ANGEL  
Can you handle the case on your own?

WESLEY  
Of course.

ANGEL  
Good. Go do that. Keep me posted. Connor, sit down.

Wesley can't leave the room quickly enough. We follow him as he leaves the room and hears Connor:

CONNOR (O.C.)  
Can we…find another place to have a conversation, like maybe somewhere non-evisceratey?

Cut to

INT. WESLEY'S OFFICE

Gunn and Anya are still pouring over the newspapers in search of any clues. They both immediately recoil when Wesley walks in.

GUNN  
So how'd the talk with Angel go?

WESLEY  
We're on our own here. Angel's busy being furious with himself… in the process, I think he actually convinced me to be furious with him, too. I think I'd like to keep things close for the moment, so let's just have us and Alexa work on this case right now.

GUNN  
Uh… Wes, I don't mean to ruin the plan here, but if you're looking to keep things close, I think we should keep Alexa out of this one. We still don't know where her loyalties lie.

ANYA  
Hello. Let's not forget about me. You don't know where my loyalties lie, either. I could be setting you up for a fall, for all you know. Maybe this is a trap. Maybe I'm just trying to get you killed. Ever think about that, huh?

Wesley straightened and smiled at Anya. She couldn't help but take a step back, and not just because he exerted evisceration fumes.

WESLEY  
Since you've met us here, all you've said is that you're _the_ new liason to the Senior Partners. Everyone just assumed that you worked for Angel. But since that doesn't seem to be true, you have to work for someone here. Since you came to us, I can only assume that you work for either Gunn or I. Therefore, I know exactly where your loyalties lie: with us. If this is a trap, you're going to be punished in many different senses, and I doubt either you or the Senior Partners would risk that at this point in the game. Now, I suggest you go and fetch Alexa from her lab. Tell her we're not angry, we'd just like her help with the case.

ANYA  
Fine. But don't expect me to ask you "how high" every time you tell me to jump. Just because I work for you, doesn't mean I have to be happy about it. And you should really take a shower. You smell like intestines.

WESLEY  
_(wincing at his own smell)_  
Right then. As soon as we go over the case, I'll shower, and you and Alexa hypothesize when and where they'll show up next.  
_(A beat)_  
I hope you don't mind me giving orders, Charles. You have just as much authority to do so as I do, maybe more.

GUNN  
I'm no leader, Wes. Sometime, if both you and Angel are out of commission, I'll be the first to step up and command, but it seems like a lot of pressure to me. At the same time, anything you tell me to do is subject to my free will; if I don't think it's right, I won't do it. Fair?

WESLEY  
Fair. And well-said.

GUNN  
Yeah. Sometimes the upgrade…

He stops. Wesley also stops. They both stare at their feet for a minute. Finally Gunn opens the folder and leans over it. Wesley does the same. Both their attentions are drawn away, however, when Connor flies through the hallway and lands hard on the ground.

INT. HALLWAY

Angel leaps after him and slams him against the wall.

ANGEL  
I expect you to do as I ask.

Connor pushes Angel off him and punches him in the face.

CONNOR  
Okay, one: I've known you for maybe two years of my entire life, and that was in a different reality. Two: I'm nineteen. I've never listened to you; why should I start now? Three: I wasn't just going to leave you to die. I followed you, so what? I figured you could use the help.

ANGEL  
You had a future. You had a family. You were going to Stanford. You threw that all away because of me, and I'm the reason you're here in the first place. You should have listened.

CONNOR  
Maybe I should have, but I don't regret what I did.

ANGEL  
I do.

Angel delivers two consecutive blows in Connor's direction, both of which he blocks easily. Angel growls and vamps out. He flips himself over Connor's head and kicks him in the back onto the ground, pinning him there with his knees.

CONNOR  
Jesus, what's your problem?

ANGEL  
I'm sorry, Connor. I'm the cause of all of this.

Wesley realizes exactly what Angel intends to do and swears under his breath, pulling a knife from within his coat and dashing out into the hall.

ANGEL _(cont'd)_  
I really do love you, Connor.

He pulls Connor to his feet, turns him around, and breaks his neck.

END OF ACT THREE


	4. 6x01: Power: Act Four

ACT FOUR 

_July, 1776_

INT. ANYANKA'S LAIR

HALFRAEK  
You what.

ANYANKA  
I… signed a contract for another life.

HALFRAEK  
With that abomination of an organization? They're _planning_ for an _apocalypse_. Right away that should tell you to run in the other direction. Nobody _plans_ for an apocalypse, they just… bring it about. What on earth inspired you to even consider signing up for another life? You're immortal, hello.

ANYANKA  
I know, but D'Hoffryn's been getting on my case lately. Says I used to be his star pupil, and that if I don't step it up, he'll make me mortal again. So I just figured… in the event of my sudden death, regardless of whether it's by explosion or by natural causes, I could stand being immortal again.

HALFRAEK  
Anyanka, have you completely lost your mind? D'Hoffryn would never do that to you unless you deserved it! He's just trying to inspire you.

ANYANKA  
…Well, all the same…

HALFRAEK  
You're not getting it, Anyanka. Wolfram and Hart don't just give out extra lives at will. I had this friend once. Did the exact same thing as you; was offered an immortality contract in return for running a few errands. Her boss found out what she'd done—not D'Hoffryn, thank the Gods—and eviscerated her on the spot. Of course, she went on to her second life… but she was doomed to work for Wolfram and Hart forever. A servant. A lackie. And now that's your fate, too, should you ever die.

ANYANKA  
Surely they would have informed me of such a clause if it applied to me…

HALFRAEK  
Did you even read the contract?

ANYANKA  
…I scanned it.

HALFRAEK  
Anyanka, Anyanka. Always read the fine print. If I were you, I would march right over to the nearest Wolfram and Hart branch and threaten to eviscerate each and every last one of them if they didn't make it void.

ANYANKA  
You don't know that's how it is, Hallie. And what is it with you and evisceration, anyway?

HALFRAEK  
I do know that's how it is, but if you're so comfortable with the notion of backup immortality, who am I to stand in the way?

ANYANKA  
Exactly.

HALFRAEK  
Just because I've never been wrong before, doesn't mean you should trust me.

Anyanka glares at Halfraek, who sits and drinks her tea with a smirk on her face. Close in on Anyanka's face as her expression changes from annoyance to dread as she thinks about what an immortal lifetime at Wolfram and Hart could mean. Cut to the

_Present_

INT. WOLFRAM AND HART CELLAR

Wesley stares into a cage containing Angel, hands in his pockets, face expressionless. Angel, in turn, is sitting in a corner of the cage. He's raged, he's cried, he's tried to find a splinter to off himself with… pretty much anything a father who just broke his son's neck should do. Now he just sits, face in his knees. He hasn't moved in a while. Wesley simply stares. Gunn walks slowly up behind him.

GUNN  
He's gonna live.

Angel looks up, his face caught somewhere between vampire and human. Wesley again notices his struggle between joy and misery.

WESLEY  
Is he paralyzed?

GUNN  
Hard to say, but the chances are in favour of him being fine.  
_(a beat)_  
They say it's a miracle he's alive at all because the break was so clean._  
(a beat)  
_They're saying no one human could have possibly survived that, let alone have a sixty per cent chance of being able to walk around in a week or two._  
(a beat)  
_Do you… you know, know him? Because I heard you call him "Connor", and that's what Angel called him right before he snapped his neck, so I can't help but feel like there's something you're not telling me.

WESLEY  
_(sighing)  
_There was a spell cast as a condition of our contract with Wolfram and Hart. Connor was… becoming a danger to himself, and others, so Angel made a deal to alter reality. Connor wouldn't remember any of us, and none of us would remember Connor except Angel.

GUNN  
So what makes you immune?

WESLEY  
I found out that Angel altered reality after Fred died. I thought perhaps the deal was to sacrifice Fred in exchange for… something. I didn't know. I asked Illyria to help me uncover what he'd done. Connor, Illyria and I were all in the vicinity at the time… we got our memories back. No one else did because they weren't in the room.

GUNN  
Uh-huh. And when was this exactly, Wes?

WESLEY  
You were in the holding dimension, getting your heart torn out daily.

GUNN  
Oh. Right.

Gunn brings a hand to his chest unconsciously. Then he crosses his arms and stands beside Wesley, joining him in staring at the slightly psychotic vampire.

GUNN _(cont'd)  
_So, uh… how long have we known Angel was… you know.

WESLEY  
I don't think he's Angelus. Angelus would have taken much more care with killing Angel's son.

GUNN  
Angel's… son? So Angel and Connor weren't…

WESLEY  
Weren't…?

GUNN  
Nevermind.  
_(a beat)_  
That conversation they had actually makes a lot more sense now.

Gunn suppresses a spiel of giggles. Wesley covers his mouth with one hand and chuckles into it. Their fun is interrupted, however, when the door to the basement/dungeon opens and an "oof" is heard as someone falls down a few of the stairs.

ALEXA  
Guys, guys. We just caught word. A hospital downtown was blown up. A surviving patient described a chuckle or something seemingly coming from nowhere. I mean, he was a mental patient, but…

WESLEY  
It's something. Do you have the address?

ALEXA  
Yes. Anya has a vehicle waiting out front.

WESLEY  
Good. Let's go.

He and Gunn jog up the stairs past Alexa. Gunn walks through the door, but Wesley stops and looks back.

WESLEY _(cont'd)  
_Are you coming?

ALEXA  
Can I?

WESLEY  
Of course.

A grin spreads across Alexa's face as she scurries up the stairs after Wesley. Cut to

EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT

A fireman heads back to a fire truck. Wesley approaches him and silently tries out his American accent.

WESLEY  
Excuse me, what happened here?

FIREMAN  
_(skeptically)  
_Who wants to know?

WESLEY  
_(pulling a false badge)  
_Agent Pryce of the FBI. I was just a few blocks away, dining—er, eating dinner when I heard the explosion. I'm just inquirrrwondering what's going on here.

FIREMAN  
We were called out here fifteen minutes ago. The entire building had already collapsed by the time we got here… there wasn't much work left for us to do.

WESLEY  
Any word on what caused the explosion?

FIREMAN  
A bomb in the basement, I'm told, but don't quote me on that.

WESLEY  
Are there any suspects? Witnesses?

FIREMAN  
Not really. There was one mental patient who was certain he saw the window open and heard laughing as he was wandering around outside, but how reliable can that be, right?

WESLEY  
Any lead is a good lead. Could you point out the gentleman in question for me?

The fireman points to a man with a walker already in avid conversation with Alexa. Wesley thanks the fireman for his help and walks back toward Anya. Gunn meets him along the way.

GUNN  
Nothin' new. You?

WESLEY  
As usual, the public is meticulously uninformed.

GUNN  
You know you could have just said "no," right?

Wesley doesn't respond. He's looking off into the distance, undoubtably at Alexa. Surprise, surprise. As they stand by Anya, Gunn notices a disgusted expression on her face.

ANYA  
Look at them all. Just… loitering about with their various mobility apparatuses, their skin melting off their faces and arms. It's one thing with demons. They're supposed to look like that. But _old people_ don't have any excuse. They just want to be as gross as possible to make everyone else dread being old. I mean, not me. I don't have to get old anymore. I get to have my properly fitting skin forever. But—

WESLEY  
Alexa, what have you found?

ALEXA  
It's our guys, all right. Big with the evil cackles and the sneaking in and out of windows.

GUNN  
Are you sure we can trust him, though? I mean, he is crazy.

ALEXA  
He's not crazy. He's just misled in a lot of matters. I straightened him out. He's a normal member of society now.  
_(a beat of stunned silence)  
_I'll explain later. In the meantime, I think it'd be best if we split up, but Wesley's the b—

All of a sudden, her eyes widen and she starts flailing as she floats thickly backwards. Wesley frowns and opens his mouth to ask her what the matter is, but his lips meet instead with a gag. An unintelligible whisper in his ear distracts him as a hypodermic needle is inserted into Wesley's neck. He feels himself being dragged into some nearby bushes as the world fades to black.

FADE IN – INT. DARK CELLAR

Wesley is vaguely aware of motion on either side of him. He jerks his head up and hits it against a metal post behind him. He groans.

ANYA  
Well, it's about time. You and Gunn just don't wake up without a fight, do you?

WESLEY  
I apologize if my unconsciousness was inconvenient.

ANYA  
Well, it was. I've been calling you for ages. You just kept on being unconscious, like I wasn't even here.

WESLEY  
Where is here?

ANYA  
I don't know. Some basement somewhere. It's dark and damp and smells like alcohol.

WESLEY  
A wine cellar perhaps?

ALEXA  
Not that kind of alcohol. It's sharper, more like rubbing alcohol. And it's coming from upstairs.

WESLEY  
So we are in a basement.

ALEXA  
Yeah, the stairs are about twelve feet in front of me.

WESLEY  
You can see twelve feet in front of you? I can't see twelve inches in front of me.

ALEXA  
I can see in the dark.

Gunn has been slowly coming to at the sound of conversation. He lifts his head up and tries to glance at Alexa.

GUNN  
Too many carrots as a kid, or what?

ALEXA  
Nevermind.

WESLEY  
Gunn, are you behind me?

GUNN  
We're all tied to this metal post.

WESLEY  
_(tugging at his hands)  
_Oh.  
_(giggles)_

ANYA  
_(annoyed)  
_What are you laughing for? This isn't funny.

WESLEY  
It is, a little bit.

ANYA  
How is this possibly funny? We're stuck in this smelly room where we can't see anything and can't move. Clearly we've been kidnapped.

Gunn giggles, too. Wesley giggles back. Alexa sighs.

ALEXA  
They're still loopy from the anesthetic. Give them a while.

ANYA  
Oh. Why didn't we get anesthetic? I want to see the light of this situation.

ALEXA  
We did get anesthetic. It's just that we're both… um… different than them, so it didn't do much.

ANYA  
What, was it like anesthetic for males only?

ALEXA  
…Yeah. Sure. Let's go with that.

Their conversation is interrupted by an open door. Blinding light pours in. The door closes, seemingly of its own accord. Wesley attempts to compose himself.

WESLEY  
Who's there?

VOICE  
_I_ ask the questions. _I _do. That's _my_ job. _I'm_ not the one who's kidnapped, that's for sure. That means _I _ask the questions.

WESLEY  
Righto then. Carry on.

VOICE  
Which one of you is Angel?

WESLEY  
Oh, he's not here.

VOICE  
Lies!

WESLEY  
No, no. No lies. He's locked up at the moment.

VOICE  
That statement is true to you, too.

GUNN  
_(giggles)  
_True to you too. True to you too. Heee.

VOICE  
Shut up!

GUNN  
Sor-ry, grumpy pants.

Wesley bursts into laughter.

ALEXA  
_(rolling her eyes)  
_Look. Angel's not here. We were on a job for him when you snatched us up.

VOICE  
Hmmm. Where is he, then?

ALEXA  
Why? What difference would it make?

VOICE  
We're on a job ourselves.

ALEXA  
Oh really? Doing… what, exactly?

VOICE  
None of your business. Angel was supposed to be here.

ALEXA  
Well, he's not.

VOICE  
…Fine.

Footsteps are audible up the stairs. The door opens and closes again of its own accord.

ALEXA  
Well, that was successful. No thanks to you two.

WESLEY  
Sorry. As we woke up, the loopiness got a little more intense. I'm a bit better now. How about you, Gunn?

GUNN  
Yeah. Everything's starting to look pretty damn depressing, so I guess it must be wearing off.

WESLEY  
But, you know, you've got to make light of a bad situation.

GUNN  
Yeah.

WESLEY  
I mean really. It wouldn't be terribly fun to just sit here and brood.

GUNN  
Yeah. Like Angel does. He just sits and broods.

WESLEY  
And it just doesn't look fun.

ALEXA  
Guys! Shut up. We've really got ourselves into a mess here. How much do you want to bet they're sitting up there deciding to kill us now that they don't have Angel?

WESLEY  
Oh dear.

ALEXA  
Yeah, oh dear. We've gotta think fast. I can't read her m…face. Because I can't see her face. Because she's invisible. So I don't really know what we're dealing with. None of us do.

ANYA  
I don't think they'll kill us. I think they'll be too busy causing mass destruction and looking for Angel that we'll starve to death.

ALEXA  
Well, we'll die, and it'll be their faults.

WESLEY  
What did we say? Now we're brooding. And it's just…

GUNN  
No fun.

WESLEY  
Yeah. No fun.

ANYA  
I thought they said they were getting better.

ALEXA  
It must not have been normal anesthetic. They're getting worse instead of better. Probably a mystical whosit.

ANYA  
…I've heard that phrase before.

The door opens and closes again. This time a cell phone floats down the stairs.

VOICE  
Who's Angel most likely to listen to?

WESLEY  
Ooh, me.

ALEXA  
Oh, no you don't. Not in this state.

GUNN  
Aw, c'mon, let him.

ALEXA  
It's not like Angel's going to be picking up a phone anytime soon, anyway. He's all wiggy in the dungeon, remember?

ANYA  
You're just chock full of impersonations today, aren't you?

VOICE  
_One of you_ is going to get on the phone _right now_ and tell Angel that if he doesn't get here by sunrise, you'll all be tortured and killed right here in this basement.

A beat as everyone lets this sink in.

GUNN  
Nobody's any _fun_ today!

WESLEY  
Yeah. Lighten up, invisible lady. Tell a joke or something. …Fine, if no one else will… knock knock?

**TO BE CONTINUED...  
**  
END OF EPISODE


	5. 6x02: Who's There?: Act One

TEASER 

INT. WOLFRAM AND HART CELLAR

MELODY hesitantly approaches the cage with ANGEL in it. She wrings her hands nervously. The vampire doesn't move.

MELODY  
Uh, boss? Alexa's… on the phone for you.  
_(a beat)  
_She sounds really mad… and there's this really loud laughing in the background… I think it's Wesley. I keep hearing a British guy try to talk, and then he just kinda… dissolves into laughter again._  
(a beat)  
_She says it's really serious. She's got her commanding voice going on… I've never really heard her like this before. She must be impersonating someone really important._  
(a beat)  
_Look, they went off to, to go find the invisible guys, and then we didn't hear from them for hours, and now Alexa's really mad and Wesley's really insane and I don't know, but I think they're in a basement or something. It's really echoey. I think they're in trouble.

Angel stands abruptly and runs at the bars of the cage. Melody shrieks and recoils. He's not looking any better. His eyes are vamped out and so are his teeth, but his face is more or less human. If possible, he looks way more threatening than normal.

ANGEL  
They're in trouble because I brought them here. They'll do better without me.

MELODY  
B-but… you didn't bring Alexa and Anya here. They were here first, remember? They're innocents in this, and they deserve saving. So do Wesley, and Gunn. If you leave them there, they're more likely to die.

ANGEL  
Maybe they should. Be better than this.

MELODY  
Then you will be responsible for their deaths twice. Think about it for a minute, boss… is that what you want?

ANGEL  
What I want got them killed the first time.

MELODY  
Well, what about Connor?

ANGEL  
_(launching himself at the bars)  
_Don't you talk about my son.

MELODY  
Okay, okay. Sorry.

Angel suddenly stopped looking so angry and reverted to sad. He backed into the corner of the cell and sunk down into the position he'd been in when Melody had walked in.

ANGEL  
Just… go tell them I'm not coming. They don't want me anyway.

Melody turns and walks disjointedly out of the room. She widens her eyes in weirded-out-ness as she walks slowly up the stairs.

MELODY  
You're right, they don't want you. Even though they called you. Specifically. And, you know, it's not like people are going insane or anything. No, no. I'm sure they're just fine without you.

Hard cut to

INT. DARK CELLAR

ALEXA holds a phone to her ear with her shoulder. WESLEY and GUNN are tied to the metal post, just as she is, beside her on either side; ANYA sits behind her. Alexa has the look of utmost annoyance on her face, as she's been on hold for several minutes and the Wolfram and Hart elevator music was getting exceedingly annoying. Even more annoying is the hysterical laughter from Gunn and Wesley that just hasn't stopped for at least five minutes.

GUNN  
Aren't… hahahahahahahahahaha… aren't you… hahahahahahaaaa…

WESLEY  
I don't know what made me say it! I just don't knooooow, Charles!

GUNN  
Aren't you glad… aren't you…

WESLEY  
It just seemed… hahahaha… like the obvious joke! I just couldn't let it pass!

GUNN  
Aren't you glad I didn't say BANANA! Haaaaahahahahahahahahahaha….

Alexa looks absolutely fed up. She blinks hard in exasperation as we black out.

END OF TEASER

---

ACT ONE

INT. DARK CELLAR

Alexa hangs up the phone angrily. The laughter is just starting to subside.

ALEXA  
He's not coming.

ANYA  
What? He isn't? Why not? He has to come.

ALEXA  
Nope. Apparently he says we're better off without him.

ANYA  
Oh, but we're not. Did you explain that? Did you tell them the part about us being dead if he doesn't come?

ALEXA  
Yep. Still nothing.  
_(quietly)  
_He never used to be like this.

ANYA  
What's that supposed to mean? You've known him for less than a day.

ALEXA  
…Nevermind.

ANYA  
No. No more nevermind. This morning you were acting like someone Wesley knows, and now you're acting just like Buffy. You made that crazy guy sane again, you can see in the dark, and yet I've known you for a month and none of this has come up before.

ALEXA  
_(quietly)  
_Also I escaped any effect from the loopy anesthetic.

ANYA  
Yeah! That's right! What's your story, lady?

ALEXA  
_(sighing)  
_Fine. I guess this is as good a time as any. I am… I don't know what I am, but I do know that I can see in the dark, read minds, and live forever unless there's an outside influence involved. I do not have strength of any kind.

ANYA  
And what does reading minds entail, exactly?

ALEXA  
I can't see memories or anything. In the case of the mental patient, I saw what was clouding up his brain function and cleared it. I don't know how; I just did. And I can only do anything of the sort if someone's started to panic a little bit. This morning, when Wesley appeared in the lab, he freaked out when he saw me. I read his mind, completely by accident, and started acting like the person more prominent in his mind. It's really not my fault; I didn't intend to act like Fred. It just happened. As he calmed, I started to act less and less like her. Now I don't think I could do it if I tried.

ANYA  
But we're in a panic situation.

ALEXA  
Yeah, and he's relaxed to the point of hysterical laughter. It's almost as though Joe Invisible knew I could do this and tried to drug all of us so none of us would freak out, and I wouldn't be able to take the role of initiative.

ANYA  
But it didn't work on either of us…

ALEXA  
So when you started freaking out a little, I read your wish for someone like Buffy to be here. I guess I became her for a while; you calmed for a while during this conversation but your panic is rising again. Really steadily, actually. Why?

ANYA  
Listen.

She did. They all did.

ALEXA  
I don't hear anything.

ANYA  
I do. Birds.

WESLEY  
…That's GREAT! If we can examine the particular tweetings, we can call Wolfram and Hart back and tell them to look for a basement in an area with that kind of bird!

ANYA  
No, Mister Loopato. If the birds are chirping…

ALEXA  
…the sun's rising.

GUNN  
Wait, wait… didn't that invisible lady say we'd be killed if Angel wasn't here by sunrise?

ANYA  
Yep. Didn't give us much of a time berth, did she?

GUNN  
Oh. That's bad. …Hey, hey Wesley.

WESLEY  
Yes? What is it, Gunn?

GUNN  
Tell another joke.

WESLEY  
Oh. Oh, okay. Ready?

GUNN  
Ready.

WESLEY  
Okay. So, hey… why did the chicken cross the road?

Cut to

INT. WOLFRAM AND HART LOBBY

Melody sits at her desk, leaning on one elbow and watching the Inter-dimensional dully. The same demonic newscaster's voice floats through the lobby.

NEWSCASTER  
_News now from dimension 5074, where an attempted mutiny took place only hours ago. The Senior Partners have decided to end the search for the only survivor of the large battle wherein the CEO of the L. A. branch and several of his employees were eliminated by a team earlier today. It's said that the Old One Illyria is still wandering the streets; it apparently left the battle after a second vampire with a soul sacrificed himself for its safety. The Senior Partners have indicated that one warrior will remain on the plain in search for the Old One, but they refused further comment. Restructuring of the Wolfram and Hart branch in question is scheduled to begin in a few days.  
__Coming up after the break: Steak or stake? We'll talk to some local vampires and discuss advantages and disadvantages for the new vampire diet of cow's blood. Also, Bill's here with highlights of the latest inter-dimensional hockey tournament between dimensions 19976 and 45908. Stay tuned.  
_  
SOME GUY  
Not a single thing about the hostage situation in this dimension, hey?

Melody looks up in surprise to regard the EXCEEDINGLY HANDSOME GENTLEMAN leaning against her desk. His ears are barely visible under his dark hair. He smiles jovially at her and she has to shake her head a little but to come to her senses.

MELODY  
Backdrop dimensions so rarely get on the news. Too many digits in our dimension number, I think. What can I do for you?

SOME GUY  
I'm looking for Angel.

MELODY  
I'm sorry, he's crazy right now. Can I take a memo?

SOME GUY  
He and I just have some issues we need to address.

MELODY  
Yeah, see, Angel's got enough issues he needs to address as it is. There's this whole thing with his son… it's complicated. Why don't you leave your papers with me and I'll get them to him as soon as he's done breaking necks, okay?

SOME GUY  
I'm afraid that's not possible, miss. I really must discuss these issues with him, and now, please, so if you could just direct me to where he's locked up…

MELODY  
…I'm sorry, sir, but that area is for Wolfram and Hart employees only. I can get those papers to him, but other than that I'm afraid there's nothing I can do.

Suddenly Melody finds herself pinned against the wall by her neck. She doesn't even see it happen; apparently there's more to this guy than meets the eye.

SOME GUY  
You're not like Angel's last secretary. She was immortal to some extent. Well, not anymore… I sort of stabbed the remains of a doorway through her heart as she walked through it… but you, my dear, are completely, entirely and 100 human, and that makes you ever so vulnerable. So, this can work one of two ways: either you can show me where Angel is and live for another many possible years, or you can die right here and now with nothing more than a flick of my wrist. Are we understood?

Melody nods slightly. Suddenly she's sitting back at her desk in the same position she'd been in before she'd been pinned against the wall; the guy was in the same position he'd been beforehand, too. Something seriously hinky is going on here. Melody clears her throat and steps around her desk.

MELODY  
If you'll just follow me, I'll bring you down to where Angel is.

SOME GUY  
Thank you, miss. Much appreciated.

An elevator opens of its own accord as Melody steps toward it. She strongly suspects that was again the work of the man following her.

INT. ELEVATOR

The doors close and Melody crouches down to knock on the hatch in the floor three times. Slowly, the elevator begins its descent. She straightens. They both stare straight ahead; no sound is heard aside from the ever-so-pleasant Wolfram and Hart special elevator music.

MELODY  
You can threaten me all you want, but I know you didn't kill his other secretary.

SOME GUY  
Oh really.

MELODY  
If you knew anything at all about backdrop dimensions, you'd know that her being staked would mean my evisceration, and since that didn't happen, you probably didn't stake her.

SOME GUY  
Is that so.

MELODY  
Yes, that's so. And you know what else? You can't travel to backdrop dimensions unless you've died and signed a contract with Wolfram and Hart at some point, and since you don't have authorization to go down to see Angel, I can only assume that you were born here, which only backs up my "you didn't stake Angel's old secretary, whatever her name is" theory.

SOME GUY  
Harmony.

MELODY  
Oh my God! I get that so much, you don't even know. I'm Melody. Meeeelody. Much more important than Harmony. I mean seriously, the melody in a song is way out there, while the harmony is just the background. You can't even have a harmony without a melody.

SOME GUY  
I mean_ her_ name was Harmony.

MELODY  
…Oh. Oh wow! What a coincidence! Did we look anything alike?

SOME GUY  
No. She was blonde.

MELODY  
Pff. I doubt it was natural.  
_(a beat)  
_…Oh. I guess… you did stake her, then.

SOME GUY  
No, you're right. She's still undead and kicking somewhere. But I used to know her.

MELODY  
But then… how did you get to this dimension?

SOME GUY  
Wolfram and Hart isn't the only evil and eternal lawfirm and/or establishment that tricks people into signing contracts, thereby signing their deaths over to a backdrop dimension.  
_(a beat)  
_I probably could have shortened that sentence somehow.

MELODY  
I wasn't going to say anything about it.

The elevator stops very suddenly. The doors open.

INT. WOLFRAM AND HART CELLAR

Melody walks through and down the cement stairs toward Angel, the guy not far behind her.

MELODY _(cont'd)  
_Um, Angel… I'm really sorry to bother you again, but this guy threatened to kill me if I didn't bring him to you, and what with me being human and all, I got too scared to say no anymore. But I really did try!

No reaction from Angel. What else is new?

SOME GUY  
She really did try, Liam. Give the girl some props.

Angel slowly raises his head. He regards the man in front of him with anger and—could it be?—a little bit of fear. The expression on his face is sincerely different than it had been when he was moping about Connor.

SOME GUY _(cont'd)  
_What's the matter? Aren't you glad to see your old cousin Seamus?

A beat. Cut back to

INT. DARK CELLAR

Alexa and Anya are revelling in the silence following another Wesley/Gunn laughing fit about the chicken who was now on the other side of the road. The basement door opens again. Bright lights. It closes of its own accord.

VOICE  
Sun's almost up.

ANYA  
We noticed.

VOICE  
Angel has to come soon, you know. If he waits any longer, he'll be ashes in seconds. Just ashes. But that's no problem for me. It's just a problem for you.

ANYA  
Yeah, yeah. We know. He doesn't show, we get axed. Hey, what's your name?

This question apparently catches the voice off guard. There is no answer for a long time.

VOICE  
I thought I said no questions.

ANYA  
This isn't a question about your operation. This is a question about you. I'm just wondering what your name is.

VOICE  
Marcie.

ANYA  
Marcie. Nice name. Where are you from?

MARCIE  
No more _questions!_

ANYA  
Because I'm just recalling this government organization called… the Initiative. Have you heard of that at all?

MARCIE  
Shut up.

ANYA  
Because I lived near it for years. Well, one year, before it was filled in with cement. Or possibly relocated. Anyway, my ex-fiancé's friend's old groin buddy Spike once told me aaaaall about this one room made completely of glass with outdoors simulated on one of the walls. He said something about books in this room with words like "assassination" and "infiltration" in them having their pages turned of their own accord. That wouldn't happened to have been you and your friends, would it?

MARCIE  
Shut uuuuuuuup!

ANYA  
Now, the same friend that was having sex with Spike was having sex with a guy who worked in the Initiative at that point. He told us plenty about the Initiative, too, but it always struck me as really weird that such an extensive organization would just… dissolve. I was always left to think that maybe it was just moved to another dimension or someth—

Anya feels a blade against her throat. Her words dissolve into a sort of strangled cry. Alexa shifts behind her.

MARCIE  
Look, okay? I don't care about your friends or your friend's friends or whatever. I don't care about your theories. I don't think you should care, either. I think you should care about your imminent death. Doesn't that seem like a good thing to care about?

Anya decides not to respond. The blade stays at her throat for another few seconds before clanging to the floor. Very quiet claps on the pavement prove that Marcie is indeed wearing shoes, and that she is leaving the room.

MARCIE _(cont'd)  
_You have one hour. You'd better hope your friend Angel shows up.

The door opens and closes again.

ANYA  
_(exhaling)_  
Anything?

ALEXA  
No. She's invisible, you know? It's not just her body, but her soul's missing too… all that's left is the mind, and that's not as easy to read as it sounds. She's very calm, in any case. Her homicidal tendencies are very controlled. She has no patience, but no panic. I don't think I could pull the cobwebs out of her mind if I tried.

Wesley snorts heavily. Alexa jumps ever so slightly and notices out of her periphery that he's asleep. A similar glance at Gunn reveals the same thing from him.

ALEXA _(cont'd)  
_Well, that's a relief, anyway.

ANYA  
What exactly are you? I mean, you're immortal with no strength, can read minds, blahdeeblahblahblah, but… _what _are you?

ALEXA  
I don't know. It's never been explained to me.

ANYA  
What do you mean?

ALEXA  
I was just created a couple months ago.

ANYA  
You're kidding.

ALEXA  
Not really. I was just suddenly… at Wolfram and Hart, being the main lab lady. That's the first thing I knew. It didn't take me long to figure out that I wanted to do more, though. Being on this excursion might cause my death more promptly than I might like, but… I'm not stuck in the lab running tests. I'm out in the field. And it's… great. This is what I want to do.

ANYA  
Your first time out of Wolfram and Hart and you've been promised death by way of being killed by crazy people if you're not saved by a mostly insane vampire in the next hour and this is your idea of hi-jinks?

ALEXA  
It's fantastic. You try living your entire life in the lab.

ANYA  
I see your point.  
_(a beat)  
_Is this you, now? Are you impersonating anyone?

ALEXA  
I think I'm me. I'm told I tend to be a humble person, who stumbles a lot.

ANYA  
It's very endearing.

ALEXA  
I'm also told that.

Wesley snorts himself awake. He shakes his head dully and runs his hands over his face before putting them back behind him.

ANYA  
…Wait a second… how did you do that?

WESLEY  
Do what?

ANYA  
You had use of your hands.

WESLEY  
No I didn't. They're tied to a pillar. Don't be silly.

ALEXA  
No, Wes, I saw it too.

WESLEY  
Well, clearly you were both dreaming.

Alexa cranes her neck to regard the pole she's leaning against. She then glances at the ropes holding Wesley's hands together and to the post.

ALEXA  
The pillar, the ropes… they're not there. They're all figments of our imaginations.

END OF ACT ONE


	6. 6x02: Who's There?: Act Two

ACT TWO 

_1745—Ireland_

INT. LIAM'S HOME

Liam is at the tender age of eighteen, still eight years away from his eventual death. His eyes are clear; he clearly hasn't yet gotten into the habit of drinking every night. His hair hangs loosely around his face, not tied back. He's humming as he walks into the dining area.

LIAM'S FATHER  
Been out all night again, I see.

LIAM  
Ah, father. Fair Loinnir needed some assistance with a wee issue she was having.

LIAM'S FATHER  
And what sort of issue was that?

LIAM  
I wouldn't be much of a gentleman if I told you that, now, would I?

A pause. Liam's father's face suggests an epic internal battle. After a few moments he decides to keep his peace.

LIAM'S FATHER  
Best wash up. Your cousin Seamus should be arriving by carriage at any moment.

LIAM  
_(groaning)  
_Cousin Seamus. A smarmy weasel if I've ever met one.

LIAM'S FATHER  
No wonder you got along with each other so marvelously as children.

Liam, in turn, suppresses a remark. It would seem that the father-son conflict is on a sincerely less epic scale than it will be in a few years.

LIAM  
Surely you didn't invite him to stay.

LIAM'S FATHER  
For a fortnight.

LIAM  
You're mad.

LIAM'S FATHER  
Hardly. I feel his presence will keep you in line for a spell. Perhaps I won't receive quite as many comments as to your promiscuous behavior.

LIAM  
True. You'll likely get double the comments regarding Seamus on the subject.

LIAM'S FATHER  
I find that doubtful.

SEAMUS  
As do I.

Father and son turn to the doorway to find Seamus standing just outside, smiling smugly. He looks similar to his modern-day appearance, the main difference being that his hair is longer and tied back neatly. In fact, everything about him is neat; he appears to be a very proper gent.

LIAM'S FATHER  
Welcome, Seamus. Come in.

SEAMUS  
Thank you.

LIAM'S FATHER  
You had no trouble, I trust.

SEAMUS  
The voyage was most enjoyable.

LIAM  
It's no wonder, by the look of the wench you brought.

SEAMUS  
That's no wench; she and I are wed.

They glare at each other, Liam angrily, Seamus still painfully pleasantly. Suddenly Liam's eyes widen; he backs up into the hearth and yelps as he burns himself. His father turns to him angrily.

LIAM'S FATHER  
Idiot boy! You could have set the house ablaze.

Liam doesn't hear. He glances back at Seamus with clear fright in his eyes. Whatever he saw is gone; Seamus simply stands, looking pleasant. He and Liam's father continue to converse about the girl for a few seconds more until Seamus smiles at Liam cheerily and goes to fetch his wife. Liam watches him suspiciously. He decides he was hallucinating; in the middle of standing tall, we cut to the

_Present_

INT. WOLFRAM AND HART CELLAR

Angel stands tall in his cell instead. His face is human and very suspicious. For the time being, he seems to have forgotten about Connor.

ANGEL  
Get out.

Seamus smiles identically to the way he always has; annoyingly pleasant, like everything is extremely amusing. He leans toward Melody.

SEAMUS  
He's always done that. Never wants to discuss anything. I haven't seen this man for two and a half centuries, and what does he first say to me? "Get out." Hardly a warm welcome. Though, what would you expect from a caged vampire? Not much more, I sup—

ANGEL  
I was talking to Melody. She doesn't need to be involved in this.

SEAMUS  
Oh. Well, now. That's unlike a vampire! Protecting humans.

ANGEL  
I think you missed out on a couple of details when you tracked me down, Seamus. Melody. Go.

MELODY  
Okay, okay. Geez.

SEAMUS  
Now why would you say something to her when you were looking at me? Clearly you were talking to me.

ANGEL  
Your cockiness won't get you anywhere here. I'm the boss. Hell, I'm way higher up on the corporate ladder than I want to be.

SEAMUS  
Finally better at me than something, cousin. No wonder you're defending yourself so profusely.

ANGEL  
Why are you here, Seamus.

Seamus smiles at the non-question and grabs a chair from an open adjacent stall. Angel looks around. He doesn't have a chair. Then he remembers it was made of wood, so it had to be removed. The guilt that had been put out of his mind by the unwelcome visitor twinges in his mind. He forces it back.

SEAMUS  
Believe it or not, cousin, I'm here to help you.

ANGEL  
You can start by stopping to call me cousin. It's annoying.

SEAMUS  
You are grouchy, aren't you? No wonder I was sent.

ANGEL  
Why _were_ you sent?

SEAMUS  
To get you out of this cage. Your friends are in danger, and so is most of L. A., if you don't get out of this cage and save your friends sometime in the next hour. You owe it to them. I was sent to make sure you deliver.

ANGEL  
Sent by whom?

SEAMUS  
The Powers that Be.

ANGEL  
_(laughing sarcastically)  
_The Powers that Be were the ones who sent me here. They caused the death of people I care about, for absolutely no reason. I think I'm finished talking vicariously to the Powers that Be.

Seamus grins, annoyingly/amusedly. Angel blinks. Seamus suddenly walks down the stairs, at least fifteen feet from where he was standing only moments ago. Angel rolls his eyes. Apparently this is something he's familiar with.

SEAMUS  
I would tell you that it wasn't all for nothing, but you wouldn't believe me. I'll tell you again in a few minutes. Now. How is that dear son of yours?

ANGEL  
You don't get to talk about him.

SEAMUS  
But the man who tried to kill him, in effect, three times, does?

ANGEL  
I'm his father.

SEAMUS  
Did you bring him up?

ANGEL  
No, but…

SEAMUS  
And were two of those attempts to kill him directly at your own hand?

ANGEL  
_Yes_, but…

SEAMUS  
But what, Liam?

ANGEL  
It's Angel now.

SEAMUS  
Yes, you and your pseudonyms. Liam, Angelus, and now Angel. Perhaps it's genetic… the Destroyer, Stephen, Connor…

ANGEL  
Shut up.

SEAMUS  
That wasn't very heartfelt!

ANGEL  
I know what you're trying to do. You're trying to be just annoying enough that I'll talk incessantly to defend myself, just as I did when I was human. It doesn't work on me anymore, Seamus. Time has passed. Centuries have passed. I've been evil. I've been good. Now I honestly don't know which one I am.

SEAMUS  
Ah, the mid-unlife crisis. How well I remember it.

ANGEL  
I'm not having a… a _crisis_.

SEAMUS  
That explains the being locked in a cage after trying to kill your son and reliving it at every possible interval, making yourself semi-demonic, not to mention slightly suicidal, and not talking to any of your friends or coworkers or even bothering to try and save them, even though this dimension is extremely similar and possibly even a little better from the one you guys were in to begin with.

ANGEL  
Still having those issues with run-on sentences?

SEAMUS  
They just don't go away.

The door opens and Melody emerges, holding a scroll. She presents it to Seamus with a dreamy sort of proud smile on her face.

SEAMUS _(cont'd)_  
Thank you, miss.

MELODY  
You're so welcome.

A beat as Seamus unrolls the scroll and flips it over.

MELODY _(cont'd)  
_Do I get to stay this time?

SEAMUS  
Yes, please; I can't for the life of me figure this thing out.

MELODY  
Oh, sorry. I forgot. I have to do this. Wolfram and Hart employees only.

SEAMUS  
First the elevator, now the scroll… you Wolfram and Hart guys are all about your privacy, aren't you?

MELODY  
Dimension 5074, please.

The scroll lit up. The same demon newscaster with the same top hat appeared upon it. Apparently the Inter-dimensional only had one employee.

SEAMUS  
"Please?"

MELODY  
You have to ask nicely, otherwise it gets grumpy and starts mouthing off.

SEAMUS  
…Uh huh. Okay. If I roll this up, will the image remain?

MELODY  
No. Sorry. Why?

SEAMUS  
Dramatic effect. I have a short speech to deliver, and it would be dandy if at the end I could just flick my wrist and the image would appear to him.

ANGEL  
Why don't you just give me the scroll and save the speech.

SEAMUS  
No! I've been contemplating this speech since I came down those stairs. The second time.

ANGEL  
_(sighing)_  
Fine. Let's just get this over with.

MELODY  
You could hide the scroll behind your back.

SEAMUS  
I guess that'll have to do. Okay, ready?

MELODY  
Ready!

Angel just rolls his eyes.

SEAMUS  
Liam—Angel, sorry—it wasn't all for nothing. Your efforts to show the Senior Partners what you're made of paid off. Not for you, oh no… but wasn't it always about the helpless? You and your crew pretty much _owned_ a law firm, and you still do. You're not helpless. You, Wesley, Gunn, Illyria, Lorne… even Spike. You all did something monumentally important a few days ago. It wasn't all for nothing.

ANGEL  
Are you done?

SEAMUS  
You're not getting it. This lawfirm made you selfish, all of you. It was no longer about the helpless. It changed your mission statement. But ultimately, even though your final actions on that plain were for your reasons alone, you achieved something. Not for you, but for them. The helpless. You helped them one last time. Wasn't that what Cordelia was always about?

Angel only looks at Seamus. The sarcasm has left his expression. He's listening.

SEAMUS _(cont'd)  
_The Black Thorn had so many people worldwide under their command, because guess what? There's only one Black Thorn group per plain. It takes centuries to rebuild it properly. You set a great many people free from their captivity, Liam, all throughout that plain. Just as many people in L. A. celebrated as did in cities in China or Australia or Mongolia. You helped the helpless.

ANGEL  
Prove it.

SEAMUS  
_(smiling smugly)  
_I knew you'd say that.

From behind his back, he pulls the open scroll and hands it to Angel.

NEWSCASTER  
_…enior Partners worldwide in dimension 5074 are beginning to feel the effects of the mutiny that took place there. Every member of the Black Thorn has been killed on that plain of existence, and that is a huge blow to the Wolfram and Hart clientele. It would seem that over 20 of the clients were not evil and were in fact bound to use Wolfram and Hart as their lawfirm in accordance with one or all of the members of the Black Thorn. The Senior Partners aren't yet sure of this underground organization that was being run under their noses and are looking into it, but are currently focused in rounding up some voluntary clients. In a brief statement made earlier, one among the Partners anonymously revealed that though almost all of their biddings are done in the name of utmost evil, they prefer to keep their clientele evil of their own accord; that is, they must be clearly evil before signing any contract with Wolfram and Hart. This would tend to eliminate actions such as those that occurred earlier this week, where one of Wolfram and Hart's own killed off every member of the Black Thorn. We'll have updates on this story regularly at intervals relative to your perception of time._

Angel slowly and deliberately rolls up the scroll and hands it back to a silent Melody.

SEAMUS  
You did good, cousin. You and your friends. Who, might I remind you, are in peril at the moment, so if we could just swing into action now…

Angel looks up in shock. He'd forgotten about the invisible people situation. He takes a minute to consider things.

ANGEL  
Melody, let me out of the cage.

MELODY  
Sure, boss, but only if you promise not to break any more necks.

ANGEL  
I promise. Open up.

Melody hesitantly pulls keys from her hair clip and unlocks Angel. He strides forward with initiative, leaving Seamus and Melody to scurry behind him.

INT. ELEVATOR

Angel presses the button for the sixth floor. Melody and Seamus exchange a nervous glance.

MELODY  
Uh, boss… aren't our offices on the eleventh floor?

ANGEL  
I'm not going to the eleventh floor.

SEAMUS  
But don't you think we should? There's research to be done. We have to find your friends before sunrise! That's in maaaaaybe forty five minutes, if we're lucky.

ANGEL  
Thirty eight, but I have something I need to take care of.

The elevator doors open up. It's apparent why Melody and Seamus are nervous; the sixth floor houses the medical facility, where Connor is currently recuperating. Angel steps out of the elevator. As the doors close over his retreating figure, we find ourselves at the

END OF ACT TWO  



	7. 6x02: Who's There?: Act Three

ACT THREE 

_Ireland—1745_

INT. LIAM'S HOME

Dinner has clearly just finished. Liam's parents, his sister Katherine, Seamus, and his wife Ciara are all laughing heartily about something that was said. Liam just sits with his arms crossed looking like the Grumpy Gus he is. Liam's mother and Ciara promptly get engaged in conversation about cooking and go into the kitchen to have a look at something. Katherine, feeling left out, follows shortly thereafter, leaving the men to sit around the table.

LIAM'S FATHER  
What are your plans for the evening, Seamus?

SEAMUS  
I thought perhaps I'd wander to the village.

LIAM'S FATHER  
Wonderful. Liam will show you around.

LIAM  
_(scoffing)  
_Ah, father, you truly have gone mad.

LIAM'S FATHER  
You will do as you're told, boy.

SEAMUS  
That won't be necessary, uncle, but thank you. I have been in the village before; surely it isn't big enough to get lost in.

LIAM'S FATHER  
You might not need the assistance, but it would be to his benefit to accompany you. Your example might demonstrate to him how a proper gentleman acts in public.

LIAM  
If Seamus is your idea of a gentleman, father, then I don't believe I've any interest in being one.

His father's face contorts with anger as Liam starts to rise from the table. Instantly, though Seamus was seated on the other side of the table, Liam finds himself face to face with him. His cousin again has him by the neck, but because there's no wall nearby, Liam is being lifted into the air.

SEAMUS  
Now, now, cousin. A walk through the village might give us an opportunity to catch up… away from any distractions.

Liam searches the room, wide-eyed, face absolutely etched with pure terror. His attempts to scream are thwarted by the lack of air to his lungs. Still he looks to his father only to see him frozen, mouth open as though in mid-sentence. Confused and struggling for breath, Liam looks frantically around for some weapon or indication that he isn't imagining this. He glances at the entrance to the kitchen to see his sister in mid-leap; she hovers in the air, frozen. Not even her dress moves.

SEAMUS _(cont'd)_  
You see you have no alternative than to do as I ask. When I let go, do not yell or make a fuss. You'll only make a fool out of yourself. Simply agree to accompany me through the town, and I will explain myself. Do I make myself understood, cousin?

Liam's face is now a significant shade of red. His panic increases with each passing instant.

SEAMUS_ (cont'd)  
_Just nod.

Liam nods, reluctantly and with much difficulty. All at once, Seamus is seated exactly where he was; Liam is standing exactly where he was, though now gasping for breath; Katherine lands softly on the ground; Liam's father forms the words that have been dwelling on his tongue for at least thirty seconds.

LIAM'S FATHER  
Idiot boy! You dare make a fool of me in front of company. You'll… Liam?

Liam's face is still etched with horror. His eyes pop and he rubs his neck, trying to find words. He stares at Seamus with blind panic. Seamus simply sits calmly and frowns slightly at Liam, appearing to appear concerned.

LIAM'S FATHER _(cont'd)  
_Are you choking, boy?

LIAM  
_(pointing at Seamus)_  
De… mon… demon…

Realizing suddenly that his father wouldn't believe him in any case, Liam turns and runs from the house, still clutching his neck. Seamus sighs and makes a mental note that asking them not to make a fuss doesn't work.

SEAMUS  
I'll go after him to find out what the matter is. I crave some fresh air, in any case.

As Seamus strides from the house, his falsified look of concern dissolved into the ever-present smile. We fade into his coat as he walks into the camera and suddenly are in the

_Present_

INT. WOLFRAM AND HART LOBBY

Melody and Seamus walk out of the elevator together.

MELODY  
I just can't help but feel like maybe we should be making sure he doesn't do something stupid.

SEAMUS  
Connor's fine. Liam's just watching him sleep.

MELODY  
How do you know that, though?

SEAMUS  
I just checked.

MELODY  
Oh. Right. That freaky weird superpower. What's that about, anyway?

For the first time since his appearance, Seamus hesitates. His pompous but endearing demeanor seems to dissolve for a second.

SEAMUS  
It's not important.

MELODY  
Sure it is. You were scary! You didn't even have to grab me by the neck or anything, I would have taken you down to Angel if you'd said you were his cousin.

SEAMUS  
Sorry. Old habit. Threatening people external to the time frame seems so much more practical to me, anyway. No one asking questions or trying to stop you or arrest you or anything.

MELODY  
So you like, what, pause time while you threaten people?

SEAMUS  
Actually I move them into a temporary dimension with an invisible seal to the one they belong in so they don't know the difference.

MELODY  
Cool. So does that mean you were lying when you said that thing about other evil companies that trick people?

SEAMUS  
No. There really are other companies like that. I'm just not affiliated with any.

MELODY  
Oh. So you're, like, a demon of some kind?

SEAMUS  
Dimensional demon. Can we change the subject?

MELODY  
No. Why are you so twitchy about this?

SEAMUS  
And why are you hiding behind a preppy persona?

MELODY  
_(blushing)  
_I don't know what you're talking about.

SEAMUS  
Sure you do. Ever since you came into possession of the Inter-dimensional, you've been… entranced with dimension 5074. The dimension is in your prophecy, whatever that's called. I always forget every time I leave this dimension. Anyway, you've been watching Wolfram and Hart in that dimension at your leisure, haven't you? Seeing how things are done. Seeing how the boss likes everything so he won't someday wish he had Harmony back…

MELODY  
Shut up.

Seamus' arrogant smile is back. He turns Melody's words back on her, sarcastically, but she doesn't notice.

SEAMUS  
Why are you so twitchy about this?

MELODY  
You don't know, okay? You don't know what it's like to work for a company like Wolfram and Hart. It's cutthroat, all the time, and I mean that literally. It's better to act stupid than to be cunning, because if people think you're airheaded, they assume they're smarter than you are and don't see you as a threat. My old boss looked out for me; told me what was what around Wolfram and Hart when I first started working here. People eventually forgot my first day when I started giving suggestions and paid more attention to the fact that I suddenly seemed to know nothing about anything. I've seen… interns break lawyers' necks for no reason other than difference in intelligence. It's not a good place. And yeah, okay. So I picked up a few pointers when Harmony started working there. And maybe I deceived you about never having heard of her. Maybe I needed the practice.

Seamus smiles, only it seems very kind this time. Even if it no longer worked on his dear cousin, he still had the knack to make people spill their guts.

SEAMUS  
You're compromising yourself in the process, miss. Liam… Angel… isn't a mass murderer anymore. He's under stress because of this situation, but he won't hurt you unless he has a very good reason to.

MELODY  
He almost killed Connor.

SEAMUS  
Well, yes, but that's because he has a connection to him. Angel saw every one of his screw ups in the form of his son, and he tried to destroy it, because he was trying so hard to do the right thing for so long and kept failing. All these failures at once sent him plummeting off the edge. But he's back now, more or less.

MELODY  
I can't just be someone else.

SEAMUS  
Being someone else is all you've been doing! Doesn't it get tiresome? Don't you wish you could just relax?

MELODY  
Of course. But I don't think it'd be…

SEAMUS  
Listen. Your new boss is a Junior Partner. No one would dare touch you now. Besides, Liam will respond to you much better if you stop trying to deceive him. Didn't you respond better to me when I was candid with you?

Melody nods. Her hair covers her face. Seamus realizes that she's crying and pulls a handkerchief from his pocket, handing it to her. She accepts it and mutters a thank you as the elevators ding and Angel walks into the lobby. He still looks to be a terribly broody fellow, but he's not crazy anymore, so that's a plus.

SEAMUS  
How's the boy?

ANGEL  
_(face flashing anger)  
_He'll be fine. Do we have any leads on where the others are being held captive?

SEAMUS  
Ah, therein lies the problem. They have no idea, and judging by the lack of employees bustling through here, I doubt anyone else does either. Where is everyone?

ANGEL  
I don't have time to worry about it. Melody, I know you're upset about something, but we honestly don't have time right now. Did they tell you anything when you talked to them?

Melody keeps her face hidden. Her voice sounds slightly stuffy.

MELODY  
They said they were in a basement or a cellar, and Alexa said something about… rubbing alcohol.

ANGEL  
That could apply to anywhere with a downstairs bathroom. Did you trace the call?

MELODY  
I tried. It was like the number became invalid the second Alexa hung up.

ANGEL  
Damnit.

He strides into his office and grabs the duster off the back of his chair, putting it on as he heads toward the elevators.

MELODY  
Wait.

ANGEL  
What?

MELODY  
Anya. She's liason to the Partners, right? Why would she be tied up if that was the case? Hamilton wasn't ever in trouble like that. Eve wasn't until she was mortal again. So why is the liason suddenly sitting helpless with a couple of humans?

ANGEL  
_(furrowing his brow)_  
She's involved.

MELODY  
Just a theory.

ANGEL  
No. It's good. The address might in her office somewhere. …Where is her office?

MELODY  
She doesn't have one…  
_(ducking behind her desk)  
_…but she left her bag behind when she left. I assume this is her journal.

Angel takes it and flips through it. He nods and walks into the elevator.

ANGEL  
I'll have to look as I go. Take the rest of the day off. Come in tomorrow morning and we'll have a nice discussion, starting with why you know so much about my old dimension. You've done good work today.

SEAMUS  
And me, cousin?

ANGEL  
You can drive Melody home and then get the hell out of my dimension.

The elevator doors close. Seamus rolls his eyes and turns to Melody. He takes her hand and she gets up off her chair. Cut to

INT. DARK CELLAR

Gunn is smiling dreamily, Wesley is humming an old tune from his childhood very loudly and very off-key, and Alexa and Anya are both trying desperately to get free.

ANYA  
It's no use. We have to be unaware of the bar for us to get free, and if we're trying to get free from it, we obviously know it's there.

ALEXA  
But if it's not actually there, how come it's so hard to get away from?

WESLEY  
Who in the hell is Yankee Doodle and why does he have such a stupid name?

ANYA  
Because we're aware of it. It's evil that way. It's an evil, evil bar that simply cannot be stopped.

GUNN  
Whoa, whoa, whoa, man. Are you dissin' America?

ALEXA  
We can't be collectively imagining this bar! We woke up attached to it! This doesn't make the slightest bit of sense.

WESLEY  
I don't mean Yankee, I mean Doodle. No one's last name is Doodle. Who does he think he's fooling? Not me, that's for sure.

ANYA  
Well… maybe someone's making it exist by the sheer power of their will and they got distracted temporarily. Or something.

GUNN  
Pff. Like "Wyndham-Pryce" is a normal name.

WESLEY  
Hey! Well, Gunn is stupid, too. Gunn and Doodle could form a club of people with stupid last names.

ALEXA  
Maybe. Maybe one of the invisible people is doing this. But it's not like we really have a lot of chance anymore anyway. We've got, what, five minutes left?

ANYA  
Not even.

GUNN  
Hey, man. That hurt. I was… I was just makin' a point, you know? Like maybe you shouldn't make fun of someone's last name.

WESLEY  
Charles, I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it.

GUNN  
Yes you did. Yes you did, Wesley. Don't lie to me. I can always tell when you're lying.

WESLEY  
I'm not lying, I sw—

ALEXA  
Okay guys. You can shut up anytime now.

WESLEY  
That was uncalled for!

GUNN  
Yeah! Meanie.

ALEXA  
It wasn't uncalled for. This argument started about Yankee Doodle. I'm not keen on spending my last seconds on this plain listening to you bicker about whose last name is stupider.

GUNN  
You're right.

Alexa gives a sigh of relief. She thinks maybe she's getting through to them, until a second later when she realizes Gunn was talking to Wesley.

GUNN _(cont'd)_  
Doodle is a pretty stupid name.

WESLEY  
I know! Isn't it just?

The door opens of its own accord.

MARCIE  
_(sniggering)  
_Looks like your hero isn't coming for you after all. Maybe we'll send your heads to him and see if he finally reacts, then we'll see.

The door closes again.

ANYA  
Oh God. Oh God. We're doomed. It didn't hit me until right now, but we're really going to die. All of us. This is it. It's actually the end. I'll never even see Xander again. My days as a liason are over. Oh God.

Alexa frowns intently. Something in her mind clicks.

ALEXA  
It's all right, Ahn.

ANYA  
_(a beat)  
_Please don't be Xander anymore. Just don't.

ALEXA  
…Sorry. Can't help it.  
_(a beat)  
_So… how long have you been a liason to the partners?

ANYA  
Almost a year. The former boss never really needed me, so I didn't do too much until Angel showed up. Filed, mostly. Now I'm doing everything at once, I guess.

ALEXA  
Hm. So you've never really been in mortal danger on this plain.

ANYA  
Well, not until now, obviously.

ALEXA  
Hm.

ANYA  
What's with the questions?

ALEXA  
Keeping you calm.

ANYA  
They're coming in here to kill us soon. Shouldn't this be a time for panic?

ALEXA  
Look around. No one else is panicking.

ANYA  
Yes, but they're doped up and you're obviously emotionally stunted.

ALEXA  
Excuse me?

ANYA  
Well, you think this is fun, don't you? Clearly there's something the matter with you.

Alexa has had it. She's silent for a few seconds longer. She senses that Wesley and Gunn are hanging on their every word. Apparently they really hadn't realized what was going on until now. They weren't freaking out, fortunately, but they weren't happy anymore. They were scared. She figured now was as good a time as any.

ALEXA  
So… what's a liason to the Partners like yourself doing in a place like this?

ANYA  
What do you mean? Who are you being now?

ALEXA  
Just me. I'm just wondering what a liason to the Senior Partners is doing tied up to a false pole in a basement.

ANYA  
We got kidnapped, remember? Geez, maybe that anesthetic was just slow-acting on you.

ALEXA  
But surely, as a liason, you realize that you can't die.

ANYA  
_(a beat)  
_What do you mean?

ALEXA  
I mean that you will not die until the Senior Partners are ready for you to die. Your head might be crushed under a twenty ton weight, it wouldn't matter. Unless the Senior Partners had some reason for you to die, you'd bounce back in a couple of days or so. And hey, if I know this, you must know it, too.  
_(a beat)  
_So either you're a very, very good actress who can somehow impersonate panic, or you're not who you claim to be. And actually, when I think about it, that latter option doesn't seem terribly likely. "Maybe someone's making the pole exist by the sheer force of their will or something…" Seriously. I wonder why I didn't catch on right then.

Anya stands. Her hands are free. She walks over to Alexa and looks angrily at her.

ANYA  
Okay, so you figured it out. Congratulations. I'm behind all this. Maybe it's a ploy to teach Angel a lesson. What does it matter? You're going to die anyway. You all are. And best of all, I got some information out of you. I knew you weren't human. I just couldn't figure out what you were. So now I know what you are, and how to kill you. Thanks for that.

Anya kicks Alexa in the face, then turns to the door and begins talking to it.

ANYA_ (cont'd)  
_The sun's up. What's keeping you?  
_(a beat)_  
Hello? I said, the sun's up.  
_(a beat)_  
Do I seriously have to do everything myself?

She storms up the stairs and opens the door… to find Angel standing right on the other side of it. He's not looking too happy.

ANGEL  
Oh, sorry. Was I supposed to come in? Usually I don't bother without an invite, but…

He kicks Anya in the face and sends her reeling down the stairs.

ANGEL _(cont'd)  
_…If you insist.

END OF ACT THREE  



	8. 6x02: Who's There?: Act Four

ACT FOUR

_1745—two weeks later_

EXT. LIAM'S HOUSE - MORNING

Seamus walks to the carriage, wife in arm. Liam's parents and sister follow, bidding them goodbye. As the camera pans to watch them go, we see Liam watching from the bushes. He hasn't returned home since the incident at dinner two weeks earlier. Now as the family stands outside, their expressions grow sombre.

KATHERINE  
Father, will we go looking again tonight?

LIAM'S FATHER  
_(shaking his head)_  
It's been two weeks. He'll either come home on his own or he won't come back. There's nothing we can do.

As her parents turned to return inside, four-year-old Katherine stands outside a second longer. Torn between gratitude that they had looked at all and annoyance that they'd given up already, Liam shifts and turns his head towards her. He notices a tear rolling down her cheek.

LIAM  
Now, now, dearest Kathy. You mustn't cry for your brother; I hear he's stronger than he looks.

She starts at first, and then grins and runs toward the bushes. He laughs and throws her into the air, catching her as she comes down.

KATHERINE  
You came back!

LIAM  
Of course I did, sweet thing. I wouldn't think to leave you behind for too long.

KATHERINE  
I was worried.

LIAM  
I know you were at that. I worried, too. I wonder, did you notice anything strange about cousin Seamus? Did he make everything stop moving-like sometimes when he talked to you?

Kathy shakes her head.

LIAM _(cont'd)_  
Did he talk about being different? Any special powers or the like?

Kathy shakes her head again. Liam smiles and puts a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

LIAM_ (cont'd)_  
All right, then. I want you to stay away from Seamus as much as you can, all right? He's not a terribly good man, I fear. Promise to be careful, yeah?

Kathy nods. Liam smiles down at her. Liam's father walks outside, looking for Katherine and sees Liam with her. He stares for a moment.

LIAM'S FATHER  
Katherine, why don't you go help your mother in the kitchen.

Katherine looks from her father up to Liam, who nods. She runs inside.

LIAM'S FATHER _(cont'd)_  
Where've you been, boy?

LIAM  
Worried, were you?

LIAM'S FATHER  
You were gone for a fortnight without any warning or contact. Explain yourself.

LIAM  
You'll likely not believe me, father, but Seamus…

LIAM'S FATHER  
Oh, lords, Liam.

LIAM  
_(face flashing anger)_  
Listen to me, just for once, without bringing your opinion into it, will you?

Taken aback by the request, Liam's father remains silent. Liam smiles fleetingly and then returns to business.

LIAM _(cont'd)_  
Twice in the day Seamus arrived, a most peculiar phenomenon became me. The first occurred when he first arrived. You recall me backing into the stove, father, but that wasn't because of some attack. I had been threatened by Seamus most ceremoniously, but I took it as hallucination since no one else seemed to see it. The second time occurred at dinner that night. I fled because it was no hallucination. He must be a demon of sorts to do that to a man. It was as though time halted as he threatened. You've got to believe me, father. It's relevant to this family's safety that you do.

LIAM'S FATHER  
_(a beat)_  
There are no such things as demons, boy.

Liam's face falls into anger, most of which directed at himself for thinking his father would actually listen to him.

LIAM'S FATHER _(cont'd)_  
However, your adversity to your cousin is enough not to invite him back into this household. No matter how impossible what you're saying might be, you certainly seem to believe it. If you believe he's a danger to your sister, then I won't invite him again.

LIAM  
So you believe me.

LIAM'S FATHER  
Nay, boy. I believe that you believe it. Now come inside and wash up, you look as though you slept in a ditch for all the days you were out.

Liam, stunned by the lack of yelling that was going on, follows his father back into the house. His mother's shriek carries over as we enter the

_Present_

INT. DARK CELLAR

Gunn, Wesley and Alexa are all still tied to the pole. Anya backs further into the basement as Angel walks towards her.

ANYA  
Where are my invisible people?

ANGEL  
They're there. Just unconscious. Or possibly dead, I may have broken a few necks. It seems I've got a problem with doing that today.

ANYA  
But they're_ invisible_!

ANGEL  
That doesn't mean the weapons they were holding were invisible. Who are you?

ANYA  
I'm Anya, hello? Where have you been?

ANGEL  
I don't think so. I met Anya once. She was strange, but she wasn't evil. Anymore. Even if that is her body, that's not her soul or mind.

ANYA  
No! You're wrong! I am Anya.

ANGEL  
Oh really? Then I guess I should probably let you know that I read your little journal here.

He pulls the book out from his inside pocket and holds it up in a sheepish manner. Anya's face contorts into anger and makes various noises of proclamation before finally forming words.

ANYA  
That's… not mine.

ANGEL  
Well, it depends on who you really are. Let's read a little excerpt from the…  
_(reading aloud from the first page)_  
…Journal of Evildoings.

Anya lunges at Angel, which he easily dodges.

ANGEL _(cont'd)  
(reading aloud)_  
Dear Journal, today I was finally given corporeal form! The Senior Partners were really nice about it and everything… I was able to retain my identity as a separate being from the person I was possessing if I did a little favour for them. I just have to wait for Angel to come to the dimension I'm in and kill him, and then I'll be given my very own body and life and everything!

While Angel reads, a half-assed fight is going on wherein Anya tries to beat Angel up, but he fights her off with one hand and turns the page.

ANGEL _(cont'd)  
(still reading aloud)_  
Dear Journal, the Senior Partners gave me an invisible army to command! I made them destroy a bridge and some other really neat stuff. People are dead now. It's a good gig. I've got them set up in that old abandoned house on Cabrillo… I'll have to get it fumigated, but that shouldn't be a problem.  
_(closing the book)_  
You're just not a very competent bad guy. First rule: never, ever document where you're hiding your secret weapon.

Angel throws the journal into a corner as Anya comes at him with a nice piece of metal piping. He ducks easily, grabs the pipe on the backswing to prevent another attack, and kicks her against a wall. The force of the blow knocks the pipe from Anya's hands. Angel throws it behind him and delivers a series of punches to Anya before she slides down the wall, unconscious. He turns to those that are tied around a pole.

ANGEL_ (cont'd)_  
I'm coming to untie you in a second, but before I do, I just want to let you know that I'm not evil.

ALEXA  
I was starting to wonder with the whole almost not showing up thing, but it's good to know.

Angel takes a pocketknife out of his… well, pocket, and cuts through the ropes slowly and methodically.

WESLEY  
Hey, hey Gunn. Did you know Angel was here?

GUNN  
Yeah.

WESLEY  
I wonder if he's going to eat us.

GUNN  
Hey Angel, are you going to, like, eat us or something?

ANGEL  
What's with them?

ALEXA  
They're drugged.

ANGEL  
Oh. Why aren't you affected?

ALEXA  
Long story short, I'm an immortal being with no strength. I'll explain later.

GUNN  
He's not answering.

WESLEY  
Okay, I'll try. Hey Angel. Angel. Hey. Angel.

ANGEL  
What is it, Wesley?

WESLEY  
I was just wondering if you were going to eat us.

ANGEL  
No, Wesley, I'm not going to eat you.

WESLEY  
Well, that's a relief. Angel, have you ever met a fellow called Yankee Doodle?

ANGEL  
Once. Nice guy. Hated macaroni, though.

WESLEY  
Was his last name truly Doodle?

ANGEL  
No. You're free. Don't go wandering off anywhere.

WESLEY  
Oh dear Lord. What happened to Anya?

ANGEL  
She's evil.

GUNN  
Is _she_ going to eat us?

ANGEL  
N… yes. Don't go anywhere near her. Wesley, what did I just say?  
_(sighing)_  
Look, Alexa, the helicopter's waiting a block from here. See what you can do about getting these two into it. Get them in the hospital wing at the firm and then wait for me in my office. I want to hear everything about what happened. I'll get Anya and take the tunnels.

Alexa nods and rounds up the pair of seven-year-old men. Angel picks Anya up, throws her over his shoulder, takes out the grate in the centre of the room and climbs down into it. Cut to  


INT. WOLFRAM AND HART CELLAR

Angel stares into the cage rather than out of it. Anya stirs and finally sits up lazily inside the cage.

ANYA  
_(a beat)_  
Oh God.

ANGEL  
I thought the Senior Partners didn't believe.

ANYA  
It's that they believe they're more powerful, actually. What do you want?

ANGEL  
I want you out of this body.

ANYA  
No thanks. I like it here.

ANGEL  
What'll it take?

ANYA  
I'm afraid you don't understand the deal I cut. I was sent to this plain to kill you. Once I succeed, I'll get my own body and immortal life and become the true liason to the Senior Partners at this branch.

ANGEL  
So Anya isn't it.

ANYA  
No. I am. I am the embodiment of liason. I am put into people. The only difference between this situation and Eve's situation was that I was given a mind of my own in Anya. Eve was acting of her own accord the whole time; Anya has no idea what's going on.

ANGEL  
But you acted just like her until your secret was uncovered.

THE LIASON  
I've been channeling her personality. She's still in here. That's why I was able to imitate panic; she's panicking. When I leave, she'll be fine. She'll have something akin to Alexa's state of immortality; no strength or anything, but she'll never die of natural causes. Except Alexa was made for a purpose. She's only a couple of months old, and she won't be around for all that much longer.

ANGEL  
What do you mean?

THE LIASON  
Like I'd tell you. You'll just have to wait and find out.

ANGEL  
_(angrily)_  
Fine. You want to kill me, you can go ahead and try, but until you leave that body, you're not leaving that cage either, so good luck. I just have to ask one last question: why are the partners trying to kill me?

THE LIASON  
Because you tried to fight them. You don't get away with that, Angel. Not without repercussions.

ANGEL  
We met the repercussions, head on. We fought them, and we lost. That's why we're here.

THE LIASON  
Then I'm just something else you have to fight. I'm here to make sure there's just one more thing you failed at: saving another innocent.

Angel turns and walks from the room. The Liason stares after him, smirking, eyes flashing. We cut to   


INT. ANGEL'S OFFICE

Angel seems to have calmed somewhat; it's morning and he's watching the sun rise from his office window. The cleaning crews have finally come and gone. Melody knocks hesitantly. Angel turns.

MELODY  
Hi.

ANGEL  
Hi. Sit down.  
_(a beat)_  
First off, I want to apologize for threatening you.

MELODY  
You didn't.

ANGEL  
Not directly, but you were scared. You felt threatened because of me. I'm sorry.

MELODY  
It's okay.

ANGEL  
_(a beat)_  
How long have you been keeping tabs on my home dimension?

MELODY  
Since I had access to the Inter-dimensional.

ANGEL  
Why did you start?

MELODY  
Because I knew you'd come here at some point, and I wanted to see how you liked everything so you… wouldn't… axe me.

ANGEL  
Oh please. I gave up killing employees months ago.

MELODY  
And instead you upgraded to killing people whose employ you were under.

ANGEL  
Yeah, but… everyone I killed was evil. You're human.

MELODY  
You killed humans.

ANGEL  
Evil humans.

MELODY  
I'm not talking about Angel anymore.

ANGEL  
_(a beat)_  
Angelus wouldn't kill you because you weren't good enough. He'd kill you because you were there, because it would be fun. It wouldn't matter what you did. In fact, sucking up to me would just make him want to kill you more.

MELODY  
Well, this talk is reassuring.

ANGEL  
Look, you don't need to hide under anything. You have already proven yourself to be a much more effective secretary in two days than Harmony ever was in almost a year. I don't want anyone who works for me to be airheaded. I need intelligent employees who can think on their feet and give input when I ask for their opinion. If it wasn't for you, Wesley, Gunn and Alexa would be dead right now. You worked on saving lives, even when I wasn't willing to.

Melody nods but won't look at Angel. He realizes she's crying again and searches for a hanky in his pockets, much as Seamus had, but not finding one. He looks awkwardly around the room, searching for anything that could be used as such, and being fortunately saved when she pulls one out of her bag.

ANGEL _(cont'd)_  
Why don't you take a couple more days off? Like… what did Lorne call them… mental health days? Just… calm down and give yourself time to… be yourself. Call up old friends or something. Just relax and come back when you feel you're ready to.

MELODY  
_(nodding)_  
You should take the Inter-dimensional. I'll only use it to watch your dimension anyway, and I think it's time I stopped that.  
_(a beat)_  
Anyway, thanks. Tell Alexa I'll try to come back soon; I know directing you guys around is going to be fairly hectic for her.

She turns and walks quickly out of the office. Angel can't particularly find anything to say, so he lets her go and returns to the window. Moments later, there's another knock at the door. He turns to see Alexa peering sheepishly inside.

ALEXA  
Um… Connor's awake and alert now. I just thought you might want to, you know, see him. Or something.

ANGEL  
_(turning back to the window)_  
I was just getting to some papers. I'll be down in a while.

ALEXA  
But… what papers would you have? The ones left behind were vetoed when he was eviscerated…

ANGEL  
I'll be down in a while.

Angel doesn't move. He's brooding as he looks out the window. We cut down to the hospital wing, where Connor is sitting upright in bed, his amazingly similar brooding look defined by his neck brace. He looks angry, but he also looks like he's formulating a plan. This is the last image we see before we cut to the

END OF EPISODE


	9. 6x03: Visum: Act One

TEASER

INT. ART GALLERY

We open with no visual, but we hear a beautiful song being played on the piano (The Heart Asks Pleasure First). Fade in, pan through the gallery and see that there is almost nothing in the room except paintings on the walls, and a piano in the exact middle of the room. A GIRL sits at the piano, playing said song. As we close in on her as she plays, a shadow appears behind her. She stops playing abruptly and turns with a frightened expression on her face.

There's nothing. Sunlight streams through the windows.

She looks nervously back at the piano and then behind her again, grabs her handbag off the top, and walks out of the gallery, locking the door behind her as she leaves. She works at the gallery, it would seem. She walks into the daylight, gets into her car, and pulls out of her parking space.

We see her driving down a country road, maple trees lining the streets. It's a very pretty scene, especially since it's fall. Everything is very quiet. She seems to be constantly glancing into the rear view mirror, as though she expects something to be there in the backseat. Each time she glances, there's nothing there, until—

A person is in the backseat with their eyes closed. Suddenly they snap open and we see that the pupils are white; in fact, the entire eye is white aside from the outline of the iris. Their face seems to melt into an expression of disdain. They are quite clearly dead. Our lady screams and pulls over immediately, scrambling to get out of the car. She takes a quick glance in the backseat, but there's no one there. This only frightens her more, however, and she runs off down the road.

She starts to turn a corner but stops dead as another of the same people comes staggering toward her. She turns to be greeted by two more. It's apparent that they don't move in the same time frame; they walk too quickly in some instants and barely inch along in others. She searches frantically around, trying to find some route of escape. She catches sight of a line of three crosses by the side of the road. As she runs wildly toward them for no apparent reason, the dead beings come closer and closer in their bizarre staggering manner. By the time she gets to the row of crosses, she chances a look behind her. The terrible featureless face stares back and is the last thing we see as we dissolve into the credits.

END OF TEASER

---

ACT ONE

INT. WOLFRAM AND HART CELLAR

The LIASON, as Anya, is sitting on the cot in the barren concrete cell, staring at the floor and smirking annoyingly. She looks up at the sound of the dungeon door being opened and stands as ANGEL walks slowly in. He holds a plate of food in hand as he approaches the cage. 

LIASON  
Oh goodie. Food's here.

Angel slides the plate through a gap between the bars and the floor and stands back, looking stern.

LIASON _(cont'd)  
_You really don't have to stand there and watch me eat, you know.

ANGEL  
Yes I do. 

LIASON  
Oh, that's right. You probably lined the food with something again today. Well, yesterday it was eucalypsis powder, so I shouldn't expect that again. Though the question becomes: did I taste the powder and fake a reaction, or am I really possessing her?

ANGEL  
Eucalypsis is tasteless.

LIASON  
Come on, Angel. I'm the liason. Do you really think I can't sense eucalpsis powder?

ANGEL  
I really think you should take a bite to test your own theory.

LIASON  
Give it up, Angel. Even if I wanted to leave the girl, I couldn't. It's not in my control. It's all about what the Senior Partners want. They didn't make you Junior Partner because you deserve the promotion.

ANGEL  
Junior Partner is a pretty useless promotion. I'm not a lawyer. It's meaningless to me.

LIASON  
Angel, Angel. I am baffled with each passing moment how clueless you truly are. There's a difference between Junior Partner and Junior Partner. Lilah Morgan, with whom I believe you were acquainted, was a Junior Partner in the lawyer sense of the word. She had no power. She didn't even have enough rank yet to be a tool. She was just there, working laboriously away at something she could never achieve because it was all meant for Lindsey McDonald. You are a Junior Partner. Do you honestly think the Senior Partners are lawyers? Well, I've got news, Angel babe; they're not.

ANGEL  
So what are they?

LIASON  
Reincarnates.

ANGEL  
Of?

LIASON  
Aw, come on now. I can't tell you everything. But I will tell you that if you're Junior Partner in the non-lawyer sense of the word, it's for a very specific reason. They must have very high hopes for you. Maybe they know more than the prophecy is saying.

ANGEL  
Is that this Unulat Prophecy again?

LIASON  
No. I believe you've read this prophecy. The one that says you'll be a key player in The Apocalypse.

ANGEL  
Which is when exactly?

LIASON  
I don't make the rules. I don't even know the rules. I just play by them.

Angel stares at the liason for a while, who stares back with a smirk on her face. The door opens behind Angel and MELODY walks down the stairs.

MELODY  
Hey boss, I don't mean to interrupt but we seem to have a case.

ANGEL  
I'll be right up. And don't call me boss.

MELODY  
Sorry. Habit.

She backs out of the room and the door closes. Angel approaches the cage and stares into it.

ANGEL  
I will not rest until I find a way to get you out of Anya. You can help yourself and provide a painless way for me to do it, or you can let me handle it.

They continue to stare at each other for a few moments. When the Liason doesn't budge, Angel turns and walks towards the door until laughter from behind him stops him dead in his tracks.

LIASON  
I'm not something you can just exorcise and be done with. I am a part of who she is now. I've taken over everything about her. Hollowed her out. She's more of me than she is of her anymore.  
_(smiling)  
_Sound familiar?

Comprehension dawns on Angel's face. Cut to

INT. WOLFRAM AND HART LOBBY

Angel walks from the elevator toward his office, barking orders at Melody as he passes. 

ANGEL  
Grab Wes, get him to bring up the volumes on Old Ones.

MELODY  
He's with the client.

ANGEL  
Client. Right. Okay, get Gunn to do it.

MELODY  
Gunn doesn't have authorization to bring up the volumes.

ANGEL  
What?

MELODY  
There was a clause in Wesley's contract that no one else had. He's the only one who can access anything in the Volumes, except those under his employ and those he signs in blood for.

ANGEL  
Was that along with the clause that stated we'd be shipped to a new dimension after we died?

MELODY  
No actually, the one about the books was plainly stated.

Angel scowls and storms off down the hall.

INT. WESLEY'S OFFICE

WESLEY sits at his desk looking pensive as a twenty-something man rambles on nervously. Angel stands patiently outside when Wesley holds up a finger to stop him from coming in. 

WESLEY  
I understand that you're shaken up, Mr. Talbot, but there is really nothing I can do until she can tell us what happened herself. You say she woke up only momentarily?

MR. TALBOT  
Just long enough to start blabberin' about dead guys. Then she screamed like she was seein' another one, flailed about for a bit, and conked out again. I did the only thing I thought to.

WESLEY  
What brought you to Wolfram and Hart?

MR. TALBOT  
My sister got freaky a while back. Got all wolfy-like, started killin'. This law firm stepped up and killed 'er before she killed the rest of our family. Silver bullet through the heart and all that.

Wesley's expression was most startled. Angel, who could hear the entire thing through the glass walls, frowned at Mr. Talbot's statement.

MR. TALBOT _(cont'd)  
_I mean, I don't want you to kill Miss Lily. She's a good girl who'd never hurt nobody. I just thought you were good with the supernatural and whatnot, so maybe you could take care of her dead man problem.

WESLEY  
_(nodding and beckoning Angel inside)  
_We'll certainly do what we can. This is Angel, the head of our operation. He'll come down with you and talk to… Miss Lily, was it? 

MR. TALBOT  
_(shaking Angel's hand)  
_Well, Lily's her first name, but she's far too pretty not to have a Miss in front of her name. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Angel.

ANGEL  
It's just Angel.

MR. TALBOT  
Well! To you I'm none other than Michael, in that case.

ANGEL  
All right, Michael. If you'll just walk down that hall and speak to my secretary, she'll take you down to the medical floor. I just need a word with my associate and then I'll meet you there.

Michael nods and leaves the room, walking right down the hall and turning around to go in the correct direction a second later.

WESLEY  
Killing a werewolf? I would have thought Wolfram and Hart would have tried to defend it.

ANGEL  
It's all about the money. I'll bet they were being paid a pretty penny to take out that girl. Listen, I was talking to the liason and she was dropping hints about what she is and… I know this is going to be hard for you, but I need you to do some research on the Old Ones. See if you can find anything about Wolfram and Hart in any of their histories.

WESLEY  
You think the liason has done something similar as Illyria did…?

ANGEL  
That's what I gathered from what she said. It's possible that she's intentionally leading us in the wrong direction, but I don't think so. Her sole purpose at the moment is to kill me, and she can't do that from where she is. She's probably leading us toward a correct solution, but one that she can fool us into thinking worked. That's why I need your expertise in this. Can you do it?

WESLEY  
Yes.

ANGEL  
Good. Get Gunn and Alexa on it as well, but be ready in case I need you with the case.

Wesley nods and turns toward the volumes as Angel turns to leave the room. Cut to

INT. HOSPITAL ROOM

The girl from the teaser, Lily, lies in bed with a vacant expression on her face. She isn't moving whatsoever. As we zoom out of the room, we see Angel, Melody and Michael listening to a NURSE.

NURSE  
The moment she woke up, she began screaming about dead people being all over the building. It took a lot of sedative, a dangerous amount, to get the screaming to stop. She isn't sleeping, I just don't think she has any energy to react. You can go in, but speak softly and be careful about what you say.

ANGEL  
All right. Thank you.

The nurse walks off to carry off her nurse duties, and Michael treads lightly into Lily's room. Angel and Melody exchange glances, mentally arguing over who should go in next. Finally Angel steps forward and Melody follows hesitantly with a notepad and a pen.

MICHAEL  
Hey, Miss Lily. It's me, Michael. I saws you all passed out by the road and I picked you up, do you remember?

LILY  
Why did you bring me here?

Her voice is barely a whisper. She barely notices Melody and ignores Angel altogether.

MICHAEL  
'Cause you were all passed out, Miss Lily, I had to take you someplace.

LILY  
No… why did you bring me _here_. This isn't… home.

MICHAEL  
No, Miss Lily. You woke up and started babblin' about dead folk. I hated to see you like that, I had to bring you somewhere that they could deal with something like that.

LILY  
This isn't a hospital, Michael.

ANGEL  
No. It's a lawfirm. My name is Angel, I…

LILY  
Is this a lawfirm?

Michael and Angel exchange strange looks. She doesn't seem to hear Angel at all, but there would be no other way she'd know that it was a lawfirm. From the inside it looked just like a hospital.

MICHAEL  
Yeah, Miss. That's what he just said.

LILY  
_(shaking her head feebly)_  
He's not real. He's different from the others but he's not real.

MICHAEL  
Sure he is.

LILY  
No. He flickers. I can see his face and then I can see the truth. He flickers.

MICHAEL  
Now now, you're not making any sense.

MELODY  
Yes, she is. Just not to us.

Angel and Michael snap their heads around to Melody. Lily slowly but surely also gazes at the secretary. Her eyes seem vacant. Melody forces herself to look at Angel.

MELODY _(cont'd)_  
If she can see the dead and she sees it in you…

ANGEL  
Then she's not just hallucinating. She's really seeing the dead.

MICHAEL  
Whoa, whoa. Hold up a minute here. You're dead?

ANGEL  
…Sort of.

MICHAEL  
I didn't see no sign nowhere that said you were dead.

ANGEL  
I'm a vampire.

MICHAEL  
Whoa! Whoa! Not so cool, Mister Angel.

ANGEL  
Relax, I'm not dangerous. And it's just Angel.

MELODY  
Listen, Lily. We believe you, and we're going to do everything we can to help you. In the meantime, you should learn to adjust to your condition.

One tear rolls slowly down Lily's face. She shows no indication that she realizes she's crying. Melody sighs in worry and resists the temptation to walk over and give her a hug. Michael wipes the tear off her face gently.

MELODY _(cont'd)_  
We'll fix this. Just sit tight, okay?

MICHAEL  
I'd like to sit with her, if that's all right.

ANGEL  
Of course. We'll let you know if we come up with anything.

MELODY  
_(glancing pointedly at Angel)  
When_ we come up with _something._

Melody shoots Angel a glance that seemed to inquire what the matter with him was, but he's already turned to leave the room. She gives Lily one more sad smile and follows Angel, but Lily's hoarse whisper stops them both.

LILY  
They have a secret.

MELODY  
What secret?

LILY  
They're not… here. They're there and here, but not here.

MICHAEL  
You not making any sense, Miss.

LILY  
They whisper the same thing. It's jumpy, like they walk, but they always whisper.

ANGEL  
What are they whispering?

LILY  
That she's coming.

ANGEL  
Who's coming?

The girl looks sadly at Angel, who suddenly seems very interested.

LILY  
_(shrugging)_  
She.

Angel watches her for a moment as she closes her eyes, then nods as though suddenly understanding something and walks away. Melody walks after him and seems to be having an argument in her head.

INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY

ANGEL  
Say what you want to say.

MELODY  
Don't get mad.

ANGEL  
I won't get mad.

MELODY  
…I don't wanna say.

ANGEL  
Okay, fine. Don't say.

MELODY  
You know, for someone whose cousin is part empath demon, you might try showing some genuine emotion for something other than information.

ANGEL  
I have genuine emotion. What I don't have is a cousin who's part empath.

MELODY  
Aren't you and Seamus cousins?

ANGEL  
Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?

MELODY  
He's part empath demon.

ANGEL  
_(chuckling and pressing button for elevator)_  
Don't believe everything Seamus tells you. He specializes in dimensional magic and has somehow found a way to become immortal, probably with the help of the Powers That Be. That's all.

MELODY  
He has the power to make people unload their problems in one big never-ending paragraph.

ANGEL  
_(walking into elevator)_  
What are you doing talking to Seamus, anyway?

MELODY  
We… spent some time together during my days off. Look, Angel.  
_(holding doors open)_  
You came down here willingly, _for a case_. Now that you've got what you need, you're leaving without even wondering how he's doing.

ANGEL  
How who's doing?

MELODY  
Angel, come on! You know exactly whom I'm talking about. Your son has been asking to see you for days, and you keep making excuses not to see him. Do you even care about him?

ANGEL  
Yes, I do, and that's why I'm staying away from him.

MELODY  
You can't avoid him forever! He's stuck in this dimension, just like you!

ANGEL  
Okay, you can stop speaking your mind any time now.

He gently moves her away from the doors and presses the close button. She sighs heavily and continues to speak even as the doors close.

MELODY  
I'm not the only one who feels this way, Angel, I'm just the only one with the courage to say anything.

Angel waves goodbye as the doors close. Melody fumes and shouts at the steel doors.

MELODY _(cont'd)_  
Everyone else is too afraid that you'll break their necks, you big stupid!

She breathes heavily and stares at the doors for a couple seconds before frowning and pressing the up button on the elevator. As she waits, she notices a figure out of the corner of her eye. She jumps.

MELODY _(cont'd)_  
Connor! Hi! How… hi!

CONNOR  
_(smiling grimly)_  
Hi.

He looks fine, aside from the neck brace and the bed hair. He's dressed in crisp new clothes and seems to have retained his slightly sarcastic and jovial demeanor, despite the recent turn of events.

CONNOR  
So… was that my dad you were just yelling at?

MELODY  
Yeah. I did everything I could to get him to come see you.

CONNOR  
He just wouldn't do it, huh?

MELODY  
Nope. He's pretty stub—

Connor grabs Melody by the throat from behind. She struggles against his grip but mostly just flails around. A frantic pan of the hallway shows that there doesn't seem to be anyone else around.

CONNOR  
Maybe now he'll find the incentive.

He drags her down the hallway and through the nearest doorway. Her eyes are wide with fear, and they are the last thing we see before we cut to the

END OF ACT ONE


	10. 6x03: Visum: Act Two

ACT TWO 

INT. WESLEY'S OFFICE

Alexa, Gunn and Wesley continue to research. Gunn looks a little disheveled and Alexa looks a lot bored. Finally she pushes the book away from her.

ALEXA  
This sucks. Can we get kidnapped again or something?

WESLEY & GUNN  
_(simultaneously)  
_No.

ALEXA  
Aw, you guys are just grumpy because you were drugged last time.

GUNN  
No, I'm grumpy because I've been reading this big ass book for the past seven hours.  
_(pushing his book away)  
_I'm a bigtime lawyer. I'm not supposed to be looking things up._  
(off Alexa's look)  
_Or, I guess I am. But they could at least be legal facts instead of stuff we've been over a hundred times before.

WESLEY  
We've never been over this before.

GUNN  
_(quietly)  
_I just meant that I have.

Wesley processes this for a few seconds, going through various facial expressions. Finally he opens his mouth, but his potential tirade as to what-were-you-doing-in-my-volumes-without-my-knowledge is interrupted by Angel.

ANGEL  
Find anything?

ALEXA  
Nope.

ANGEL  
Nothing at all?

ALEXA  
I've gone through the list of Old Ones, and there's no reference whatsoever to either a Liason or to Wolfram and Hart.

ANGEL  
Wait.

GUNN  
What?

ANGEL  
The Old Ones came before everything. We didn't even know about them until a few months ago. Wolfram and Hart might be ageless, but it still came after the Old Ones.

GUNN  
Actually I've always kinda thought that the Senior Partners were Old Ones.

ANGEL  
The Liason… said something. That the Senior Partners were incarnates, or reincarnates or something.

WESLEY  
The Old Ones don't reincarnate. They existed once, were immobilized and were moved.

ALEXA  
Isn't that an oxy-moron?  
_(off his grumpy look)_  
Sorry.

WESLEY  
Every Old One, with the exception of Illyria, is situated in the hole through the middle of the earth.

ANGEL  
Maybe Wolfram and Hart is being run from there?

WESLEY  
No. They're not conscious. Illyria had no recollection of the time that passed aside from some knowledge she acquired from prophecies of the time.

GUNN  
Illyria was an exception though. Maybe there are others.

WESLEY  
There aren't.

ANGEL  
Wesley, maybe we should keep an open mind about…

WESLEY  
It's not a matter of openmindedness. These are the facts. Illyria was a discrepancy…

ANGEL  
Which means that there might be other discrepancies.

WESLEY  
_(standing angrily)  
_You're not understanding me.

GUNN  
We're understanding you pretty well, Wes. It's you who doesn't seem too clear on what we're saying.

Wesley pauses, still looking furious but staring at Gunn expectedly, waiting for him to explain.

GUNN _(cont'd)  
_There are millions upon millions of Old Ones in that holding chamber. The chances of Illyria being the only one not frozen in time are pretty slim. If she found a way to get out, whether it was foretold or not, some of the others probably have a way to get out, too.

WESLEY  
I suppose next you're going to tell me that they were stuck in their frozen state for billions of years out of default and that there is something specific about this time that's waking them all up.

GUNN  
The Senior Partners, if they are Old Ones, were never frozen. Some power found a way to stuff them in their crates and put them where they're supposed to be, but they never slept.

WESLEY  
You're a lawyer, Charles. I'm an expert in mystical phenomenon.

GUNN  
You're not the only one who cared for Fred. We all did whatever we could.

WESLEY  
No. _I_ did everything I could, while you traded her soul for a mental upgrade.

ANGEL  
_(holding Gunn back)  
_Hey! Now come on! You're getting sidetracked by something that's in the past. Let's focus on the present.

Angel pushes Gunn down onto the sofa he'd been sitting on earlier. Alexa's still sitting on the floor, glancing from face to face, while Angel stands angrily and waits for them to calm down.

ANGEL _(cont'd)  
_Let's just drop this case altogether right now. The Liason can wait. Right now we have a poor girl on the medical floor who thinks she's hallucinating because she can see the dead.

WESLEY  
How do we know she _isn't_ hallucinating?

ANGELShe couldn't look at me because I flickered death. What do we know about the afterlife on this plain?

ALEXA  
Ooh! Oh! I know! I know everything there is to know about the Valley of the Souls or otherwise.

ANGEL  
Good. Do you know… why she would be seeing this?

ALEXA  
Did she mention how they moved?

ANGEL  
Yeah, actually… she said they were fragmented, or… jumpy was the word she used. She also said that they weren't here, but they were, and that they were also there, or something.

ALEXA  
Hm. External to the time frame, maybe?

ANGEL  
What do you mean?

ALEXA  
If she's seeing them and they walk normally and seem as real as you or I, then she's probably been hit by a spell to reveal unresting souls or something. If she's seeing them they appear to move strangely when compared to people native to this time frame, then she's seeing something very different.

ANGEL  
Yeah, she said… that I wasn't real. She knew that Michael and Melody were different from them, and that I was different from either of them.

ALEXA  
Then we're delving into something a lot more serious. She might actually be able to see into the Valley of the Souls. Are there lots and lots, or just a few?

ANGEL  
She didn't say, but I'd guess only a few. She kept glancing to her left, just past where I was standing. Sometimes she'd nod like they were telling her something and she understood despite her belief that they weren't real.

ALEXA  
It sounds like she's only seeing the ones with certain characteristics or something. Some… indication that makes them all the same. The Valley of the Souls is… packed full. Souls walk through each other freely because there's no other way to get around. Especially in a place like Wolfram and Hart, she'd be seeing the dead everywhere, not just to her left.

ANGEL  
What could be causing it?

ALEXA  
That I don't know. It would probably have something to do with this dimension, which I know quite a bit less about. Hey… if you're planning on leaving the building to find out what's going on, can I come?

GUNN  
She's been asking if we could get kidnapped again. This girl's looking for action.

ANGEL  
I don't think I'll be leaving just yet, but if I do I'll probably need my expert nearby.

ALEXA  
_(grinning)_  
Okay. Cool.

ANGEL  
Gunn, Wesley, do something else or go home. Emotions are running too high to get anything productive done about the Liason.

GUNN  
Uh, Angel… where's home?

ANGEL  
What do you mean?

GUNN  
We had apartments in our old dimension, but I finally went home last night and my apartment building had been taken over by an upscale restaurant.

ANGEL  
You're joking.

GUNN  
Nah. I asked for apartment 4A and they gave me item 4A on the menu. It didn't seem bad until they told me it was ostrich and then charged me forty bucks for it.

WESLEY  
I found the same thing, actually. Only my building had become a… demon brothel.

Gunn snickers. Angel raises an eyebrow.

ALEXA  
I'm sure we've still got a couple spare apartments. They won't be penthouse or deluxe or anything, but they should be okay.  
_(bitterly)_  
Better than a cot in your office, anyway. I'll talk to Melody about it.

Alexa leaves the office. Angel sighs and turns to Wes and Gunn.

ANGEL  
Listen. I know losing Fred was hard, but you have to stop letting it interfere with your work. This is a whole different case, but you're choosing to take it personally.

WESLEY  
Are you suggesting we just forget about it?

ANGEL  
See? That's exactly what I mean. I never even alluded to anything like that. What's with you today?

WESLEY  
_(bowing his head)_  
I could ask you the same question.

ANGEL  
_(pausing)_  
All right. Neither one of us is exactly ourselves today. But I'm not picking fights with people.

WESLEY  
Today.

ANGEL  
Okay, fine. Be angry. I don't need to be here for it.  


INT. HALLWAY

Angel walks out from Wesley's office in a huff. Alexa's standing just out of sight from the office waiting for him.

ALEXA  
I wanted to talk to you about something but it seemed too sensitive to bring up in front of them.

ANGEL  
_(angrily)_  
What is it?

ALEXA  
Well, when did you become Mister Grumpy Pants?

ANGEL  
_(glaring)_  
Are you being Lorne? Stop being Lorne!

ALEXA  
He's on your mind today. Can't help it. Occupational hazard. Anyway, what I'm wondering is why you're all referring to Illyria as "she".

ANGEL  
Isn't Illyria a "she"?

ALEXA  
Technically, Illyria's an "it".

INT. WOLFRAM AND HART LOBBY

ANGEL  
_(stopping in front of his office)_  
What difference does it make?

ALEXA  
You all became attached to Illyria. You actually miss Illyria because you associated it with Fred. In your mind not as much, but in Gunn's and especially Wesley's, it's there. And you're proving it by calling it "her". It's only been a few days, Angelhair, but—

ANGEL  
Stop reading me!

ALEXA  
—you miss Illyria almost as much as you miss Lorne.

ANGEL  
I've known Lorne for four years. I knew Illyria for four months. I didn't even like Illyria.

ALEXA  
It fought by your side and wore Fred's face, and that was enough for all of you. You liked Illyria regardless.

ANGEL  
_(face set)_  
Find Melody and get the apartments set. I have work to do.  
_(turning and walking toward his office)_

ALEXA  
Angel.

He stops but doesn't turn around.

ALEXA _(cont'd)_  
Stop panicking about Connor. He never panicked about you, and I think you owe it to him to take responsibility for your actions as calmly as possible.

He just keeps walking like he never heard.

INT. ANGEL'S OFFICE

Angel crashes in the chair behind his desk without looking and seems to brood for a couple seconds. Suddenly he frowns and looks around. All the blinds in his office are down, and he didn't put them that way. He sniffs the air, closes his eyes in apparent mortification, and swivels in the chair slowly.

CONNOR  
_(stepping out from the shadows)_  
Hi, dad.

ANGEL  
_(a beat)_  
So how are you?

CONNOR  
_(ignoring Angel)_  
Are you going to explain yourself or what?

ANGEL  
Do you want me to?

CONNOR  
_(blinking hard)_  
I don't even know how to be sarcastic to that!

ANGEL  
It seemed like…

CONNOR  
_(angrily taking out a stake)_  
I swear to God, if you're about to say "it seemed like a good idea at the time", I'll kill you.

ANGEL  
Go ahead.

CONNOR  
Unfortunately I've got this pesky moral stance that prevents me from doing anything until you explain yourself.  
_(a beat. Angel says nothing)_  
Okay, so here's what happened from my perspective. I show up. We talk for like thirty seconds and suddenly you're punching me in the face. Next thing I know I wake up in hospital, pretty looped out on morphine because apparently some moron broke my neck. So I want an explanation. Ask to see you. You don't show up. Five days later you still haven't shown. Not only did you break my neck but you're too cowardly to even come down and own up or even see how I was. After all this, dad, I really think that the least that you owe me is an explanation.

Angel stares at Connor. Connor stares at Angel. They just stare for a while. A minute, at least.

ANGEL  
To save the lives of my son and the woman I loved, I made a deal with the enemy. Cordelia lived for a while as a vegetable before dying, but you were given a new life. One with proper parents and no awareness of the world of demons. I saw you when you toasted your family and I was satisfied, so I took a job at Wolfram and Hart. I roped my friends into it. One of them died. No one, and I mean no one, has been the same since Fred died. Except Spike, but I'm not too sure he has actual feelings.

CONNOR  
Either talk faster or get to the point.

ANGEL  
So I got pissed off. I did something to justify Fred's death. In my selfish attempt to settle the score, I got you, my son, the person I sacrificed every moral bone in my body to give a better life to, killed. So we were back to square one. You were taken away from your family and stuck here, where the only person you know has a pretty epic history of killing people for fun. It wasn't about my sacrifices. It was about the ones you have to make, all because of me. By signing one piece of paper, I gave you exactly what I wanted for you and took it away all at once.

CONNOR  
So you decided within thirty seconds of seeing me that I must have been so destroyed about it that I'd rather die.

ANGEL  
Yeah.

CONNOR  
I was happy, you big idiot! I greeted you with a smile and told you I didn't regret anything I did!

ANGEL  
…Yeah, but…

CONNOR  
So you took that as an indication that I was miserable and regretted everything?

ANGEL  
…Kinda.

CONNOR  
Kinda.  
_(sighing)_  
Look, Angel, I'm nineteen. I knew following you back to Wolfram and Hart was dangerous. I knew following you to the alley was really freaking dangerous, especially since the demons you were fighting were chasing me the entire way. I knew I'd probably die in that alley. I didn't expect to be killed again once I got over here.

ANGEL  
You knew?

CONNOR  
Nah. I just figured there was an afterlife of some kind where I wouldn't get killed a second time.

ANGEL  
I am so, so sorry.

CONNOR  
Yeah.

He lets the stake fall to the floor with a clatter. Angel closes his eyes in sorrow.

CONNOR _(cont'd)_  
I'm not the same person you knew. Stop presuming you know me or what I want. I've barely seen you my whole life anyway, so I don't know where you get off making decisions for me.

ANGEL  
I… I didn't mean it like…

CONNOR  
I know. I'm just giving you a hard time about it. Something I'll probably be doing for a long time coming. Wait… are you… oh, quit with the waterworks already. I know you're sorry. Let's just… forget it.

ANGEL  
I broke your neck.

CONNOR  
Yeah, but if your heart was really in it, I'd be dead. Again.  
_(sighing)_  
Listen. I put you at the bottom of the ocean for three months and then let your friends believe I cared and you eventually got over it. I slept with your girl and got her pregnant and you still gave me a place to stay. Then I tried to blow her up when she was in a coma and you sacrificed what you believed in to give me a better life. So I'm pretty quick to forgive you at this point, especially since, as it turns out, when you broke my neck you thought it was what would be best for me.

ANGEL  
I don't deserve your forgiveness.

CONNOR  
Yeah, well. I disagree. I'm still pretty teed off about it, if that helps.

A beat followed by a very soft throat-clearing from the door to the office.

ALEXA  
Hey… I know I'm interrupting and stuff but we have a situation here.

ANGEL  
_(pulling himself somewhat together)_  
What is it?

ALEXA  
Um… we're pretty sure Melody's been kidnapped.

CONNOR  
What? By whom?

ALEXA  
Um… um… uh…

ANGEL  
Alexa.

ALEXA  
Uh… the cameras… um…  
_(sighing)_  
The cameras show Melody being nabbed from behind by… Connor.

END OF ACT TWO


	11. 6x03: Visum: Act Three

ACT THREE 

INT. ANGEL'S OFFICE

Angel, Connor and Alexa are standing about, Alexa looking nervous and the other two looking shocked.

ANGEL  
_(to Connor)  
_Did you kidnap Melody?

CONNOR  
No! God no. She actually came down to my hospital room and played cribbage with me, every day. If I was going to kidnap someone, it wouldn't be Melody.  
_(a beat)  
_Also I don't kidnap people. Anymore.

ALEXA  
Well, the cameras tell a different story.

CONNOR  
They're wrong. I left my room and came straight up here.

ALEXA  
When?

Connor stares into space for a moment and makes small motions with his hands. Angel smiles as he realizes Connor's reenacting the situation to remember the moment he looked at the clock.

CONNOR  
One twenty-seven.

ALEXA  
Wow, that's precise.

CONNOR  
_(shrugging)_  
Photographic memory.

Angel's smile widens.

ALEXA  
I didn't actually look at the time stamp on the recording, but I will. Right now. So, um… don't go anywhere.

CONNOR  
I'm coming with you.

ALEXA  
No! What did I just say?

CONNOR  
Listen, I didn't do this. And I want to see whatever it is that's wearing my face so I can beat it up.

ALEXA  
Your… neck is broken.

CONNOR  
It's almost healed up, actually.

ALEXA  
You're still hardly a fighter!

CONNOR  
You're afraid to be alone in a room with me, aren't you?

ALEXA  
…No…  
_(off Connor's look)  
_A little. But only because I saw the tape.

ANGEL  
I'll come.

ALEXA  
_(relieved)  
_Really? Okay great. Let's go.

Cut to:

INT. SURVEILLANCE ROOM

ALEXA  
Hey Rob, can you bring up that footage again?

ROB  
Anything for you, Alexa.

ALEXA  
Aw, thanks. You're a doll.

Rob, the five-handed demon, fiddles around with something and promptly the footage of Melody yelling at Angel comes up on one of the screens. She stands huffing for a moment before pressing the elevator door button. Connor comes from around the corner and starts making small talk.

ANGEL  
Time code's off.

ALEXA  
_(skeptically)  
_True.

ANGEL  
You're not convinced.

CONNOR  
Wait, shh.

Connor on the screen smiles good-naturedly and then sneaks behind Melody, cutting her off mid-sentence and dragging her off around a corner. Connor in the surveillance room frowns.

CONNOR _(cont'd)  
_Can you, like, rewind or something?

ROB  
Sure thing.

Connor watches himself turn the corner again and shakes his head.

CONNOR  
I come around the wrong corner. My room is in the other direction. I should have come from the left wing, not the right.

ALEXA  
Maybe, but you could have walked through the rest of the hospital and come in the other direction intentionally to throw everyone off.

ANGEL  
And the time deficiency? Different clothes?

ALEXA  
He could have taken Melody wherever, tied her to a chair and then double backed to his room to change and come from the right direction.

ANGEL  
What do you mean, wherever? We have every inch of this entire building under surveillance, except where I disconnected it.

ROB  
Yeah, I noticed that. I can't fix it, either. How did you even notice the cameras?

ANGEL  
The buzz is really annoying when I'm trying to sleep.

ALEXA  
Where Connor—

CONNOR  
I didn't do anything.

ALEXA  
Fine, where whoever it is that looks like Connor took Melody… there's a wall right there. It's like there's a chamber or something that not even the blueprints document.

ROB  
That's not possible. I know this entire establishment like the back of each of my five hands. There's no secret chamber there or anywhere else.

ANGEL  
Okay, so what are our options?

ALEXA  
_(turning to Connor)  
_Why don't you ask the culprit?

CONNOR  
I didn't do anything! I would never do anything like this!

ALEXA  
That's not what Melody's mind suggests.

ANGEL  
Are you reading her?

ALEXA  
Her panic is so strong. I can sense it, but I can't pinpoint the location.

ANGEL  
Is that how you knew she was kidnapped in the first place?

ALEXA  
Yep.

CONNOR  
Hey, can we focus, please? Melody saw me on the Inter-dimensional back in the day. Things have changed. I didn't do this.

ANGEL  
I know.

ALEXA  
I'm still not convinced, but I'm willing to entertain the possibility that this isn't y—Angel, we still have a case! I totally forgot.

ANGEL  
I know. I thought that you and Wesley could deal with the case while me and Gunn looked for Melody.

ALEXA  
_(grinning)_  
Okay. Good plan. I like this plan.

CONNOR  
_(to Angel)  
_I'll come with you.

ANGEL  
No, you won't.

CONNOR  
Didn't we just have a discussion about how overblown your instinct to protect me is?

ANGEL  
I'm serious, Connor. I don't want you in any danger until you're, at the very least, out of the neck brace.

CONNOR  
And I don't want you to keep telling me what to do, but one of us is going to be disappointed here and to be frank I'm tired of being disappointed with you.

Angel and Connor stare each other in the eye, both with identical set expressions and crossed arms. Finally Angel breaks into a wide grin.

ANGEL  
Chip off the old block.  
_(nodding at the door)  
_Let's go. But don't blame me if you get hurt.

CONNOR  
_(happily)  
_Okay.

Everyone except poor old Rob files out of the room. Cut to:

INT. MEDICAL FLOOR – HALLWAY

Connor, Angel and Gunn are all standing in the middle of the hallway, staring at a central point on the wall. Angel leans forward and pokes the wall. His finger does not go through. It's a solid wall. He stands back and stares again for another few moments.

ANGEL  
We're missing something.

GUNN  
Apparently I'm missing a whole mess of things. How does a vampire have a son?

ANGEL  
According to Wolfram and Hart, when I went through the trials to save Darla, they gave her another life even if it wasn't given directly to her. How do two people disappear through a solid wall when they're both corporeal?

GUNN  
Whoa, whoa. Darla's the mom? I thought she was dead. And a vampire before that. And maybe they're not corporeal.

ANGEL  
What do you mean by "maybe they're not corporeal"?

GUNN  
If whoever did this isn't Colin—

CONNOR  
It's Connor.

GUNN  
—then maybe they have some kind of special power to make themselves non-corporeal. Okay, how do two vampires have a son, and how does he age nineteen years in the space of two?

ANGEL  
I'll have someone remove the block on your memory later. Right now we have to focus. Even if whoever it was wasn't corporeal, Melody still would be.

GUNN  
Well, maybe who or whatever it was could make her incorporeal, too.

ANGEL  
Do we know of any demons that do that?

GUNN  
I'm just the lawyer. I don't do demons.

ANGEL  
I know we're in another dimension and everything, but I've never heard of anything that can make something else incorporeal just by touching it, and I've been around a while.

CONNOR  
Wait. I… I'm remembering something.

ANGEL  
What is it?

CONNOR  
I was… nine or ten, I guess, maybe younger, and Holtz was teaching me about what a menace you were. Suddenly the air shook and something came across the plain. I tried to fight it but it wasn't really there. It grabbed a nearby talumpha and when I tried to kill it out of mercy my sword went through it, as well.

GUNN  
What's a talumpha?

CONNOR  
A small harmless demon that healed me once. One of the few things on Quor'toth that wasn't evil. But entirely solid. Both the incorporeal thing and the talumpha disappeared into a tree and didn't come out on the other side.

ANGEL  
Did Holtz have any answers?

CONNOR  
He just said it wasn't from this plane and I guess I forgot about it.

GUNN  
So that's it?

CONNOR  
Yep.

ANGEL  
It's something. Whatever took Melody isn't from this plane. Which makes our jobs a lot harder, but at least we're getting somewhere.

GUNN  
So what's next?

ANGEL  
We look into other dimensions.

GUNN  
You're joking, right?

ANGEL  
Nope. It's time to break out the Inter-dimensional.

GUNN  
_(crankily walking toward the elevator)  
_So much for going home. Ever again.

Cut to:  
  
INT. WESLEY'S OFFICE

Alexa and Wesley are sitting, each with a massive book on sightings of the dead, but neither of them seems to be focusing all that well. Alexa slowly raises her eyes and looks at Wesley before dropping them back down to her book, and a moment later Wesley does the exact same thing. Alexa notices and smiles.

ALEXA  
So… find anything?

WESLEY  
God no.

ALEXA  
No, me neither. I'm having a hard time concentrating. It doesn't help that I can't get this song out of my head, especially since it seems to be in Japanese and I don't think I've ever heard it before.

WESLEY  
You're sure you don't know of any spell that could do this?

ALEXA  
I focus on other dimensions, not this one. I've only been in it for a few months.

WESLEY  
Where were you before?

ALEXA  
Nowhere. I was just… one day created.

WESLEY  
_(frowning)  
_When?

ALEXA  
March sometime. Why?

WESLEY  
_(suspiciously)  
_No reason. Perhaps we should go down and see if we can find out any more. We're getting quite impressively nowhere with the knowledge we have.

ALEXA  
And say what, "did you happen to notice anyone casting a spell on you to make you see certain people from the Valley of the Souls?" I don't think that would go over very well.

WESLEY  
Wait. You said earlier that she was only seeing select individuals because they likely all shared a certain trait. What led you to that conclusion?

ALEXA  
Well, otherwise she'd be seeing everyone. But a part of the reason as to why she's only seeing some has to be attributed to something. It would have to be specified as to what it is these people possess to make them visible to her.

WESLEY  
So all we have to do is ask her what these souls have in common and maybe we can track down the source, or at least a reason for which she's seeing them.

ALEXA  
_(smiling)  
_Let's go.

They get up and start to leave the office. Cut to:

INT. ANGEL'S OFFICE

Angel, Gunn and Connor are all crowded around the tiny, tattered scroll that lies on Angel's desk. The image fades from it and Gunn rubs his eyes.

GUNN  
Okay, so that's seventy dimensions down, only an infinite number to go.  
_(sighing)  
_We have to narrow this down somehow. We're just going through the dimensions in numerical order looking for a shape-shifter, but we still don't know that's what we're looking for. Plus there are bounds to be all kinds of shape-shifters in dimensions we haven't gotten to yet.

CONNOR  
Did you enter a keyword?

GUNN  
What keyword?

CONNOR  
During one of our conversations, Melody was talking about the Inter-dimensional and said we could just say a keyword and it would list the dimensions that apply.

GUNN  
And you couldn't have said that seventy dimensions ago?

ANGEL  
We still don't know what we're looking for. We can't list a keyword if we don't know what we're looking for.

CONNOR  
_(quietly)  
_I don't think it would be a shape-shifter.

ANGEL  
Why do you say that?

CONNOR  
I don't think a shape-shifter would go through all the trouble of making itself look like me just to take Melody back to its home dimension.

ANGEL  
But you might be the target.

CONNOR  
I'm not so sure. The me on the tape didn't say anything indicating that he knows who Melody is. Melody fed him information and he took it. I'm just saying… I recognized the glint in his eye. It used to be in mine. I don't think I was the target… I think you are.

ANGEL  
You think that some form of you from another dimension found a way here and saw me and Melody arguing…

CONNOR  
He probably took that as an indication that you knew each other pretty well and took her just to lure you to him.

ANGEL  
It's working.

CONNOR  
Should you be—

ANGEL  
I'm staying on the case.

CONNOR  
Okay. Just thought I'd ask.

ANGEL  
So we start looking for versions of you who never had their memory erased.

CONNOR  
Or are still in a version of Quor'toth.  
_(a beat)  
_Do you have like a snack machine or something?

GUNN  
_(raising an eyebrow)  
_I don't know, but we should have put one in the lobby a loooong time ago.

ANGEL  
_(rubbing his eyes)_  
Maybe we should all take a break for a few minutes.

GUNN  
I like this plan. Chinese cool with you?

CONNOR  
_(grinning)_  
Yeah. Sounds great.

Gunn nods and leaves the room. Connor wanders over to one of the armchairs in front of Angel's desk and collapses into it. Angel watches him watch the floor for a minute.

ANGEL  
You've been awfully quiet.

CONNOR  
Yeah. Just thinking, I guess.

ANGEL  
_(after a beat)_  
Do you remember a lot of Quor'toth?

CONNOR  
_(sighing, as though he'd expected the question)_  
Everything. When my memory was restored, I remembered everything. Some of it's buried, but I can remember everything in my first life. Including before Quor'toth.

ANGEL  
You're kidding.

CONNOR  
I don't remember being born, or Darla at all, really, but my earliest memory is in the hotel. It's pretty distorted… I guess babies don't really understand much, but I remember Fred and Lorne and you and everyone. It took me a long time to remember their names, but… I remember.

ANGEL  
When Wesley took you?

CONNOR  
Yep. Definitely remember that. I even remember the epic shootout between you and Holtz and those men with guns and Sahjahn. I never really remember what was said… probably because I couldn't understand any of the words… but I remember what I saw.

ANGEL  
Do you… miss Holtz?

CONNOR  
_(nodding slowly)_  
Yeah. But I miss a lot of other things and people more. Cordelia, Lorne, Fred… something about all my memories of Holtz are kinda bitter, like he only loved me because I represented revenge on you. I remember you and everyone else as loving me because I was me. And even if I wasn't really around you for long, it's what sunk in.  
_(a beat)_  
But I don't like to think about that version of my life because I ended up so screwed up. I like the new version, where I didn't try to blow people up or kill my father on numerous occasions. I also like where the new version of me ended up. I want to fight evil by your side because I know it's what I was truly born for. It's just that…  
_(sighing)_  
Every time I reference my memories in Quor'toth, I feel that part of me that wants to be primal and kill everything just because I can. And that's not who I want to be. So I keep them hidden until something reminds me of them. Like today. And I just don't want to go there. That's why I clammed up, I guess.

A weighted silence falls as Angel takes everything in. They're both roused from their thoughts by a shrill scream apparently coming from the lobby. They jump to their feet simultaneously and run out of the office.

INT. WOLFRAM AND HART LOBBY

Wesley and Alexa are hesitantly approaching Lily, who's standing in the middle of the lobby with a hospital gown on. She appears to be the one who screamed. She's now looking around the lobby, sobbing and whispering incoherently.

ANGEL  
What happened? Why is she here?

WESLEY  
We're just as clueless as you are. We were going to go down to speak with her about what the souls have in common with each other and she simply walked out of the elevator we'd called.

CONNOR  
They're whispering the same things.

ANGEL  
What?

CONNOR  
The girl and Alexa. They're muttering the same thing at the same time.

Angel and Wesley both move their attention to Alexa and note that Connor is right. Suddenly they both throw their heads back and scream simultaneously. Momentarily it sounds as though only one person is screaming rather than two, and they both fall unconscious. Wesley catches Alexa and Angel bolts forward to catch Lily. Angel and Wesley exchange glances, and this is how we reach the

END OF ACT THREE


	12. 6x03: Visum: Act Four

ACT FOUR 

INT. MEDICAL FLOOR—HALLWAY

Wesley stands, looking broody enough to rival Angel, staring into Alexa's room. She's still plumb unconscious and being tended to by a doctor and a nurse. Connor slides beside Wesley with his hands in his pockets.

CONNOR  
No change?

WESLEY  
No.

CONNOR  
You really care for her, huh?

WESLEY  
Yes. No. I…_  
(sighing)_  
I don't know.

CONNOR  
Is it because she looks like Fred?

WESLEY  
No.

CONNOR  
Not the best lie ever.

WESLEY  
It might be part of it, but it isn't all of it.

CONNOR  
Are you sure? Because that look is identical to the one you used to give Fred, and you've only known Alexa for a few days. I mean, I'm no expert, but it seems like maybe you want Alexa to be Fred so much that you've actually started to believe they're one and the same.

WESLEY  
Did you want something?

CONNOR  
Yeah. The girl's awake.

Wesley's head turns toward Connor, but he seems reluctant to take his gaze off Alexa. Connor waits for Wesley to say something, but he doesn't.

CONNOR _(cont'd)_  
Weren't you like going to see her when all this happened?

WESLEY  
I was.

CONNOR  
So… are you going to come see her now, or are you just going to stand here looking miserable and staring at the woman who isn't the one you love?  
_(turning away off Wesley's look)  
_Okay, okay. I'll go already.

Wesley watches Connor for a moment, turns back to Alexa, and reluctantly follows him down the hallway. Cut to:

INT. MEDICAL FLOOR—LILY'S ROOM

Connor and Wesley walk in and lean against one wall beside Angel. Michael's sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, sporting an ice pack on his face and looking furious with himself. Lily's lying in bed, staring at the ceiling through red and narrowed eyes.

CONNOR  
_(hushed)  
_Did we miss anything?

ANGEL  
No. Still hasn't said a word.

CONNOR  
_(to Wesley)_  
She's been staring at the ceiling for the last few minutes, but she's blinking more often so we figured she was somewhat closer to talking.

LILY  
_(emptily)_  
They're gone. I'm waiting.

ANGEL  
_(standing)_  
Waiting for what?

LILY  
For them to come back. They can't come and go. They're still here. I just can't see them anymore.

ANGEL  
And you think this is temporary.

LILY  
Everything has changed. It has to be temporary.

ANGEL  
What do you mean?

LILY  
Even if I never saw any of them again, I'd know they were there. Wondering what they're doing and what they're seeing is going to haunt me for the rest of my life. I don't know if I can live that way.

ANGEL  
You can.

Lily doesn't say anything; she simply stares sadly at the ceiling.

WESLEY  
What do you remember about what you saw?

LILY  
Souls. There were other ones but I couldn't see them, I just knew they were there. So many of them. The ones I could see would always stop walking and whisper to each other. They could see me, they knew I could see them, and they stage-whispered just so I could hear what they were saying.

WESLEY  
What did they say?

LILY  
That _she_ was coming.

ANGEL  
She who?

LILY  
All I got was the pronoun. No names. The souls didn't even seem to know her name.

ANGEL  
Were they dreading it?

LILY  
Some were excited. Others were frightened. Others still were morose.  
_(shrugging slightly)_  
They fled whenever that girl was in the room. Even though she couldn't see them, they didn't want to whisper in front of her.

WESLEY  
Alexa?

LILY  
Huh?

WESLEY  
The girl you were called to in the lobby. Is she the girl they fled from?

LILY  
Yeah. When that… thing happened, the entire lobby was empty of souls. The excited ones were excited, the frightened ones frightened, but they all ran away.

The room is silent for a moment. Wesley won't look at Lily when he next speaks.

WESLEY  
Alexa said all the souls would have something in common. Do you know what that was?

LILY  
Only that they all knew she was coming. The ones I couldn't see held no interest or knowledge.

ANGEL  
And now you can't see any of them.

Lily shakes her head slowly and closes her eyes.

MICHAEL  
Now, come on. I think it's time Miss Lily got to restin'.

ANGEL  
One more question. What happened in the lobby?

LILY  
Don't know. I started whispering something in a language I didn't understand, and I guess that girl—Alexa?—did too. Next thing I know I'm back down here and I can't see them anymore.

WESLEY  
Do you remember any of the words?

LILY  
I didn't understand them.

WESLEY  
No, but do you think you could repeat the sequence of vowels and consonants?

LILY  
Maybe… visum… inscribo… alius… I can't remember.

Wesley's expression is vacant and horrified as he stares at the floor. Angel glances at Connor and sees only confusion. He's the only one who doesn't understand what was said.

ANGEL  
I know this was hard for you. Thanks for your cooperation.

LILY  
Am I… do I stay here?

ANGEL  
For a while, probably, to make sure the visions don't come back. But if they don't, you could probably go home tomorrow.

Lily nods but maintains her vacant expression. Angel leaves the room and Connor tugs lightly on Wesley's arm to indicate that they should do the same. Wesley glances dreamily (or perhaps nightmarily) toward Connor and stumbles after him.  


INT. HALLWAY

Connor shuts the door to the room and the three of them stand around, looking at the floor.

ANGEL  
Why do I feel like something is happening to each and every member of this team, one at a time?

CONNOR  
Why?

WESLEY  
I've never heard that spell before. I'll do some research but I don't know if I can reverse it.

CONNOR  
Why? What did she say?

ANGEL  
Get on it. Connor, go up and wait for Gunn. Tell him what's happened. I'll see if I can wake Alexa up and get her to talk to me.

CONNOR  
Will someone please tell me what's going on?

Angel looks to Wesley, wondering who should say it, but Wesley is already vacantly walking toward the elevator. Angel sighs, knowing Wesley's taking the case personally, and turns back to Connor.

ANGEL  
The three words she said were "vision", "entity" and "another" in Latin. Either she really wasn't speaking of her own accord, or she's lying about not knowing Latin. We need to find out if Alexa can see the souls, what the spell does and where it came from.

CONNOR  
What about Melody?

ANGEL  
I don't know yet. Go find Gunn and come back down here, and we'll figure it out.

CONNOR  
But—

ANGEL  
Gunn was right, Connor. There are too many dimensions. Without a common denominator we're treading water, and judging by the number of crises popping up, we really can't afford to waste time. We've got Lily, Alexa, Melody and Anya to take care of. The best policy is to deal with one at a time right now.

CONNOR  
_(brushing past Angel toward the elevator)_  
Fine.

ANGEL  
Don't pout, just do the job.

CONNOR  
_(not turning around)_  
I don't pout.

Angel smiles fleetingly and watches Connor go before remembering that he has several damsels to save and turns toward Alexa's room. Cut to:

INT. ANGEL'S OFFICE

Gunn's coming in from the lobby with a bag of chinese food in hand. He's looking down at the receipt with contempt as he enters the room.

GUNN  
So apparently in this dimension, kung pao chicken costs thirty bucks a pop. I'd say judging by the smell that it's worth it, but between the ostrich incident yesterday and now the expensive chicken, I'm guessing bird is a rare delicacy or something.  
_(looking up, seeing Connor standing in the middle of the room)_  
Where's Angel?

CONNOR  
I'm wondering the same thing.

GUNN  
Did he do the hero thing and take off without saying anything again?

CONNOR  
Yeah.

GUNN  
Oh well, he probably wouldn't have wanted any anyway. Hope you don't like mushrooms in the chow mein, they freak me out.

CONNOR  
_(stepping back)_  
Too slimy.

GUNN  
Plus they just don't taste right. Why anyone would want to put something that tastes like stale water in food is beyond—

His sentence is interrupted by the cloth covered in chloroform Connor put over his face. The maniacal look is back. Gunn struggles for not very long before falling extremely unconscious. Connor looks around nervously and grabs Gunn by the neck of his jacket, moving them both through Angel's desk. Cut to:

INT. WOLFRAM AND HART LOBBY

The elevator dings. The doors open and another Connor walks across the lobby. He stops dead in his tracks when he sees Gunn's feet dragging across the floor. He sprints into Angel's office to see the last half of Gunn disappear through the wall. Lunging forward, he grabs the toe of Gunn's shoe and disappears into the wall along with them. Cut to:

INT. DARK ROOM

The wallpaper has peeled in a number of places. In other places, the wall has been punched in or ripped out. From the ceiling comes broken electrical wires. The window is smashed. There is a bit of furniture in the room, but it's tattered all to hell. A broken coffee table sits in the middle of the room.

Connor Number One comes through the wall, taking Gunn to the middle of the room and letting go without looking behind him. He sheds the neck brace and throws it angrily on the floor, which creaks under his weight. Connor Number Two is nowhere to be seen. Suddenly a quiet squeal comes from off camera and Melody scampers into view. She seems to have been here for a while; she's wearing a very oversized shirt in way of clothing. She kneels down beside Gunn and tries desperately and very quietly to wake him up. When he doesn't respond, she stands up and finally takes a stand.

MELODY  
What did you do to him?

CONNOR  
Knocked him out. He'll wake up.

MELODY  
Why did you have to bring someone else into this?

CONNOR  
_(angrily)_  
Do you see Angelus anywhere?

MELODY  
No.

CONNOR  
You're not enough leverage. I know Gunn is a part of his team.  
_(frowning)_  
Though I didn't think he'd be human in that dimension. I staked him months ago.

MELODY  
_(whining)_  
I'm climbing the walls. Aren't you going stir crazy?

CONNOR  
_(without emotion)_  
One time my father made a crude wooden container he called a "coffin" and left me in it with only water for a month. This is nothing.

MELODY  
_(aghast)_  
Angel did that?

CONNOR  
_(angrily)_  
Angelus is not my father!

MELODY  
Oh. Holtz.

CONNOR  
You don't get to say his name!

MELODY  
_(timidly)_  
Sorry.

Connor raises a hand as though to strike her. Melody winces, but Connor doesn't move. He's glaring at something behind Melody. Slowly she turns to see Gunn standing and rolling up his shirt sleeves very carefully.

GUNN  
Just try it, Sparky.

CONNOR  
_(approaching Gunn)_  
I could take you down in seconds.

GUNN  
I'll bet, what with being borne of two vampires. Something must've carried over.  
_(likewise stepping forward)_  
But if you hit her, you won't be conscious long enough to take me down.

Connor and Gunn are staring each other down. Gunn has the slight advantage because he's taller, but Connor has another advantage because Gunn doesn't seem to know that knocking him unconscious is a feat indeed. Connor realizes his and smiles coldly, stepping away.

CONNOR  
The only reason either of you are still alive is that I know he can beat me when there's nothing at stake. He's got twelve hours before things change.

The camera stays on Connor as he saunters from the room. We hear a hushed conversation off camera:

MELODY (O.C.)  
_(groaning)_  
We're screwed.

GUNN (O.C.)  
What? Why?

MELODY (O.C.)  
A day here means an hour at home. If we have half a day…

GUNN (O.C.)  
Then Angel's only got half an hour.

Connor smiles grimly again as he turns the corner into the hallway.

INT. HALLWAY

The hallway is at least as tattered as the room was. The only lights are at either end of the large corridor. As Connor turns the corner, the other Connor, the one with the neck brace, slides out from within the shadows, creeps behind the first Connor, and puts a hand over his mouth.

CONNOR #2  
My turn.

Cut to:  


INT. HOSPITAL ROOM

Angel's sitting in a chair, apparently reading a magazine of some kind, when Alexa begins to stir. He throws the magazine down and goes to her side immediately.

ANGEL  
Can you hear me?  
_(Alexa groans)_  
Can you talk?

ALEXA  
_(slightly slurred)_  
I'm just waking up from a mystically induced sleep. Give me a minute.

ANGEL  
Right. Sure. Sorry.

She slowly opens her eyes and sighs.

ALEXA  
Yes, I can see them. No, they're not driving me insane like they did that girl. Why? Because I'm not entirely human and can probably take it better. What do I remember about what happened in the lobby? Nothing, because I wasn't acting of my own accord. Something mystical was happening. Last thing I remember is walking to the elevator with Wesley. Why do I know all this if I don't remember it? Because someone on this floor was panicking when I was out. I read them unconsciously. That cover everything?

ANGEL  
Almost. Are they talking?

ALEXA  
They fled. They don't want me to see them.

ANGEL  
Why not?

ALEXA  
I don't know. I catch a glimpse of them peering around walls every once in a while, but as soon as I spot them they say "eep" and run away again.

ANGEL  
Can you get anything from them?

ALEXA  
Nope.

ANGEL  
Why not? Is it because they're dead that you can't read them?

ALEXA  
I could read you, remember?

ANGEL  
What do you mean, could?

ALEXA  
_(sighing)_  
Since I woke up, I can't read anything. This is the medical wing; I was picking up doctors and nurses that were freaking out before. Patients. Whomever. But now I can't even remember who I was reading to pick up all that information when I was out. That's the last reading I got, and probably the last one I'm going to get.

ANGEL  
Why?

ALEXA  
Don't know.

ANGEL  
_(after a silence)_  
Are you…

ALEXA  
Relieved? A little. I can just be me now. But it was handy. I could get you, for one thing.

ANGEL  
I was… going to ask if you were okay.

ALEXA  
Oh.  
_(she smiles)_  
Yeah. Kinda weak, pretty nauseous, but no lasting harm done. I should be up and at 'em in no time.

ANGEL  
_(nodding)_  
Good to hear.

ALEXA  
Aw. You're scared for your team.

ANGEL  
I thought you said you couldn't read people anymore.

ALEXA  
Not psychically, but I'm still a pretty good judge of body language and demeanor.  
_(a beat)_  
I think I owe Connor an apology. I… didn't really get any reading from Melody. He just… freaked me out. What I got psychically, I mean. And I think I misinterpreted. Where is he?

But Angel's frowning. He sent Connor up to get Gunn over an hour ago. Cut to:

INT. WOLFRAM AND HART LOBBY

Angel storms out of the elevator and toward his office. He peers in and sees the Chinese food still sitting untouched on his desk.

INT. ANGEL'S OFFICE

He steps forward and opens the lid of one of the containers. It's stone cold.

ANGEL  
Damnit.

He rubs his forehead pensively and paces the office, trying to figure out what to do. Suddenly he stops and looks slowly over to the area behind his desk. A ripple seemed to pass over the wall, but he only caught it in his periphery. He looks curiously at it for a moment longer until he clearly sees another ripple. He walks toward it and puts his hand to the wall to figure out what it's doing, but his hand goes right through. He starts and tries to pull it out, but something seems to be hanging on to it. He tugs again, and gets his arm out, but a hand is clinging relentlessly to it and pulls him back. Angel grits his teeth and pulls once more, hard, and backs up suddenly as the weight comes with him. He stumbles backwards—

—And through his desk, pulling the arm and the person attached to it with him. Or, people. He looks up, prepared to fight, to see Connor, Gunn and Melody looking down at him, breathing heavily and looking quite significantly worse for the wear. Slowly, Connor's battered face breaks into a wide grin.

CONNOR  
Hi, dad.

END OF EPISODE


	13. 6x04: Juxtaposition: Act One

**A/N:** Many of Lorne's lines are from the episode "Spin the Bottle" in season four. They belong to Joss, Mutant Enemy, etc. While we're at it, I don't own any of these characters. Well, I did create Alexa and Melody. Maybe I own them a little.

---

TEASER

INT. TATTERED ROOM

GUNN and MELODY are seated on the floor, Melody hesitantly nursing a wound on Gunn's head that seemed to have come when CONNOR dropped him on the floor. This is the scene we never saw from the last episode.

MELODY  
It doesn't look as bad as I thought it did. Just a bit bruised.

GUNN  
I didn't even know it was there.

MELODY  
Yeah, well. Keeping an eye out for bruises is a keen talent of mine.

Gunn turned to look at Melody, but saw by the flush in her cheeks and the forced neutral expression that it was something she hadn't meant to let slip. He decided that if she didn't want to tell, he wouldn't ask.

GUNN  
So how long have you been here?

MELODY  
I don't know. The days… don't really pass here. Connor mentioned that for every hour that passes there, a day passes here. God, I didn't think anyone was coming for me.

GUNN  
That's not the Connor I know. The Connor I know was adamant about getting you back.

MELODY  
Aw, really?  
_(off Gunn's look)  
_Er… the Connor we know is calm and well-adjusted because of the new life he was given, but the Connor you don't remember would probably be similar to this kid. This is another dimension. You were a vampire here. Connor's a mass murderer here. It's just the way it goes.

GUNN  
So what happens when he comes back?

MELODY  
There's really nothing we can do.

GUNN  
Sure. Hit him over the head with a heavy object…

MELODY  
Tried it. He just gets mad. Smacks you across the room and takes away the food privileges.

GUNN  
You're joking.

MELODY  
I don't joke. My sense of humour, along with my courage and common sense, abandoned me days ago.

GUNN  
Well, don't take this the wrong way, but I fought demons for years. I think I could take him.

MELODY  
No, you couldn't. He fought demons in Quor'toth for years. He's got super-strength and super… everything. Do you think you could take Angel down?

GUNN  
If I had to.

MELODY  
No. You couldn't. Just like you can't take his son down.

GUNN  
I'm guessing your optimism bummed a ride with your sense of humour, too.

MELODY  
I'm not joking, Charles. We're screwed. I meant it when I said it. We're stuck here. Outside it's apocalyptic. Even if we did manage to get out, we'd die within hours. We're free to move within this room, but step into the hallway and Connor will hit us; jump out the window and somehow survive the impact, and some kind of demon will eat us within minutes.

VOICE (O.C.)  
There is one other option.

The camera shows Connor at the door, looking slightly menacing… with his neck brace. Gunn stands up with a smile on his face.

GUNN  
Man, am I glad to see you.

CONNOR  
Back at you. Hey, here's your shoe. It came off when I grabbed onto it. I ended up in the next room over and was worried I'd ended up in the wrong dimension before I heard… well, my voice.

GUNN  
_(looking down at his feet)  
_You know, I didn't even notice it was missing.

CONNOR  
You guys all right?

GUNN  
Kinda disoriented, pretty weirded out, but otherwise all right.

CONNOR  
_(to Melody)_  
What about you?

Melody just shakes her head and looks at the floor. Connor brings her chin up with his finger and looks her in the eye.

CONNOR _(cont'd)  
_I'm going to get us out of here, all right? I've got a plan.

MELODY  
Unless your plan involves tying up the other Connor and finding out the secret of how he travels between dimensions, I don't think you'll get very far. 

Connor smiles and brings a small vial of an emerald green liquid out of his pocket. He backs slowly out of the room and into the hallway. Melody and Gunn follow, incredulous.

INT. HALLWAY

CONNOR  
All we have to do is find a hot spot, say a few words and swallow some of this stuff, and we should be able to get back home. Or possibly to a dimension where everyone sang opera, but he said that happened only once, and that he'd sneezed in the middle of incanting. 

GUNN  
Geez, what'd you do to make him talk so easily?

CONNOR  
He's me. I know his weaknesses, because they're mine. Of course, it pained me on the inside to do what I did, but it had to be done. Now come on. My memory of this place is kinda foggy, especially since I already exist here, so Gunn, you'll have to help me out a little.

GUNN  
Why? What would I know about it?

CONNOR  
What, you don't recognize it? Well, understandable, I guess, what with being half-destroyed and everything… we're in the Hyperion. Now, he gave me an address that we have to track down, so—

Connor turns the corner to walk down another hall, but stops dead in his tracks. Melody nearly runs into him, stepping on Gunn's foot behind her to prevent it, but he doesn't seem to notice either. They're all too busy noticing that most of this side of the hotel had been ripped out, and now there is a large, scaly dragon shrieking at them from a five-foot distance. This is the last thing we see as we approach the

END OF TEASER

---

ACT ONE

INT. DIMLY LIT CLUB

A woman with long, curly, brown hair opens the door from the outside and steps in, holding it open for someone else. We can't see their face; they're wearing a trench coat and a lovely hat. The woman, AGGIE, smiles grimly and puts her hands in her pockets as though nervous.

AGGIE  
Here it is.  
_(glancing expectantly at the trenchcoated person)  
_I know it's not a lot, but… you didn't ask me for anything fancy.

The figure sighs and brings a gloved hand up to take off his hat. A particularly green fellow with red horns and a sad face scans the club carefully.

LORNE  
No, Aggs, it's… perfect. Too much, almost.

AGGIE  
And your aura matches your enthusiastic tone.

LORNE  
_(shaking his head, looking down)  
_I'm sorry. I appreciate your trying, doll, but… I'm afraid I'm not exactly in a Hosting mood.

AGGIE  
And I'm sensing that you have to get back into it if you want to move on from this.

LORNE  
Maybe I'm not supposed to. I killed a man and then left my friends, the only true friends I've ever had, present company excluded, to die. Friends who saved my life on more than one occasion.

AGGIE  
Friends who asked you to die for their cause.

LORNE  
It was _our_ cause. It was… Fred's cause.

AGGIE  
You shouldn't be expected to die just because Fred did.

LORNE  
Oh, Aggs. The truth is that I did die with Fred. She was my…  
_(trailing off)_

AGGIE  
It feels like that, but you had a life before these people entered into it. For years you hosted your own club, and you abandoned it for them. But that chapter of your life has passed. It's time to get back on your feet.

LORNE  
_(quietly)_  
Things have changed.

AGGIE  
Yeah. You met amazing people who changed your life forever, and you're stronger for it. Even since the last time you came to me, you're stronger.  
_(sighing)_  
Come on, Lorne. It's breaking my heart to see you like this.

LORNE  
I'm sorry.

AGGIE  
Don't be.

LORNE  
It's that… ever since that shaman brought the memories back of the little nipper, I can't help but feel a little more doom-and-gloomy than usual.

AGGIE  
I noticed. But nothing about that was your fault either.

LORNE  
I don't blame myself; there's no reason I should.

AGGIE  
Lorne, I'm psychic. I happen to know for a fact that you do blame yourself. Now, the bar's open. I want you to march up to that stage and get a feel for it. Sing a song. Tell a story. Talk to no one. Then go home and sleep on it. I can hold this place for you for a few days while you make your decision, but I really hope… well. Just think about it.

LORNE  
_(smiling grimly)_  
I will, Aggie. Thank you.

AGGIE  
Think nothing of it, Lorne. You know where to find me.

She puts a hand on Lorne's shoulder, and then turns to move out of the club. Lorne stares at the stage for a while and sighs heavily. He wanders over to the bar on the right-hand side of the room and throws his trenchcoat on the counter. He pours himself a seabreeze and flicks on a couple of stage lights. He grabs an ashtray, pulls a cigarette out of the pack in the trenchcoat pocket, and wanders up to the piano. He sits on the bench, sheds his blue jacket, lights his cigarette and sighs again. Even after everything, being on stage still feels right. He stands, wanders over to the side of the stage, and picks up a microphone without turning it on.

LORNE  
_(muttering)_  
All right, Barbara. Don't fail me now.

He closes his eyes and brings the microphone up to his face. He imagines the piano line, and pretends there's an audience in front of him to perform to.

LORNE _(cont'd)  
(singing)_  
Memories… light the corner of my mind…

Light claps fill his ears, though they aren't really there. The camera starts to pan out, and suddenly the shots have siding. Someone seems to be watching these occurrences external to the location. Lorne's being watched.

LORNE _(cont'd)  
(singing)_  
Misty water-coloured memories… of the way we were.

Cut to:

INT. ANGEL'S OFFICE  
ANGLE: Angel's face

Angel's the one watching Lorne on the Inter-dimensional, and rather solemnly at that. Lorne's tinny voice continues to fill the office, but Angel's attention is brought to someone knocking on the door. Angel looks up as he rolls up the scroll.

ANGEL  
Wesley.

WESLEY  
That sounded like Lorne.

ANGEL  
It was. I was just…

WESLEY  
Checking up on him?  
_(Angel nods)_  
How is he?

ANGEL  
_(hesitating)_  
He's fine. What's up?

WESLEY  
It's what isn't up that's worrisome, actually. I know I'm supposed to "let it drop" or what have you—

ANGEL  
Check your attitude at the door. I don't have time for it.

WESLEY  
_(opening and closing his mouth several times)_  
I'm simply expressing my concern at the inaction being taken with regard to the Liason.

ANGEL  
It's being taken care of.

WESLEY  
Is it now?

ANGEL  
It is. Anything else?

WESLEY  
That's it? That's all the explanation you're going to provide me?

ANGEL  
I don't need to explain my actions.

WESLEY  
And usually I agree with that, but lately you've taken to almost not rescuing your co-workers and breaking your son's neck. Now, there is a poor, _helpless_ girl in the cellar awaiting your assistance. What have you done for her?

ANGEL  
_(leaning back)_  
Listen, Wesley—

WESLEY  
I want a straight answer. We've known each other too long for anything else.

ANGEL  
We need the Liason.

WESLEY  
Beg pardon?

ANGEL  
She has information we could use.

WESLEY  
You're putting information before a girl's life?

ANGEL  
Anya's in no danger.

WESLEY  
_(shocked)_  
You know that for a fact, do you?

ANGEL  
Well, sure. I mean, her body's possibly being possessed by an Old One, but even after what happened to Fred, I'm not too worried.

WESLEY  
…What… How dare…

ANGEL  
I mean, that turned out okay, didn't it? Illyria almost won the battle in the alley for us. She's the only one who survived it, anyway.

Lorne's tinny voice continues to reach Angel's ears. He picks up the closed scroll and looks at it menacingly.

ANGEL _(cont'd)_  
Well, Lorne's alive, but he chickened out and abandoned us. Now he's singing at a night club. How lame is that, right? Die for your friends versus singing at a night club. For no audience, no less! Lorne, my friend, you've gone downhill. Not far, mind you… you weren't much help in the first place.

LORNE (O.C.)  
_(distantly)_  
So I'm an idiot. What are you, perfect?

ANGEL  
That's two in a row, bud.

WESLEY  
_(hesitantly)_  
Angelus?

ANGELUS  
Gosh, everyone's so smart today.

WESLEY  
What happened to you?

ANGELUS  
_(offhandedly)_  
I'm Junior Partner now. Souls get in the way. I had it removed. Now—  
_(pressing a button on the desk and vamping out; doors and windows lock)_  
—I believe that you and I have some business to attend—

His speech is interrupted by a swift wooden arrow to the chest. Angelus looks down momentarily and grins at Wesley, the shooter of said arrow, as he turns to dust. Cut to:

ANGLE: Angel's face

Angel's eyes open abruptly. He sits up quickly and looks about. It's nighttime; the overhead light are turned out. The Inter-dimensional remains unrolled on the desk. Lorne's voice continues to fill the office; Angel looks down at him on the scroll momentarily.

LORNE  
_(distantly)_  
Well, the fact is, I had every reason to believe that the spell would work. And it did… after a fashion.

Angel rubs his face with his hands and checks his watch. We don't see the time but it's apparently something ungodly. Leaving Lorne to chatter to his empty club and Angel's soon-to-be-empty office, Angel rises and walks stiffly from the room. Cut to:_  
_

INT. WOLFRAM AND HART LOBBY

No one here, either. It's dark. We follow Angel as he walks over to the elevator and presses the down button. He shoves his hands in his pockets and waits. It dings, the doors open and Angel steps in. As the doors close, we see Angel crouch down and knock on the hatch in the floor of the elevator three times. Cut to:

INT. WOLFRAM AND HART CELLAR

The Liason in Anya's body looks up and smirks as the elevator dings again and Angel walks out. Calmly, still with hands in pockets, the vampire approaches the cage containing the Liason.

LIASON  
Well, well, well. Look who—

Her sentence is cut off due to a large and imposing hand grabbing her around the neck and lifting her off the floor. Angel remains very calm.

ANGEL  
What will it take?

LIASON  
_(choking)_  
I may not need air, but Anya does.

ANGEL  
_(tightening his grip)_  
Answer me.

LIASON  
Your death.

ANGEL  
Wrong answer. Talk to the Partners. See what else it'll take.  
_(releasing Anya's throat)_  
I'll do anything.

LIASON  
_(rubbing her throat)_  
Then let me kill you.

ANGEL  
Heard that version already. Growing pretty tired of it.

LIASON  
_(snickering)_  
You must be feeling so useless right now. You've tried everything, from eucalypsis to seeing if I'll jump from one entity to another. Nothing works. You're done.

ANGEL  
What's your point?

LIASON  
You really are ready to do anything.  
_(a beat)_  
Well, almost. Except endanger yourself or people you love. For now, anyway.

ANGEL  
For now?

LIASON  
You're losing your soul, bit by bit. The things you've been doing or not doing… you know it as much as I do. You're dreaming about killing your friends. Even friends already dead—Fred, Cordelia, the people you loved most—are victims in your dreams lately.  
_(a pause)_  
Except Wesley. He got the best of you tonight. Why?

ANGEL  
Guess I got bored of the outcome.

LIASON  
You see him as a rival, don't you? Everyone else is too pure. The girls were easiest; Gunn put up a bit of a fight, but not enough. Wesley's heartlessness is starting to match your own. He's more cunning, more paranoid, and more informed than you are; if you became Angelus again, you're worried he'd get the best of you. I wonder why Connor hasn't appeared in your dreams yet. Maybe even Angelus is afraid of the outcome.

ANGEL  
_(turning away)_  
Talk to the partners. See what it'll take.

LIASON  
This is desperation at its finest, isn't it? You're willing to sell your soul in an attempt to save it.

ANGEL  
I'm willing to sell my soul to save Anya's. There's a difference.

LIASON  
_(sarcastically)_  
Yeah. I'll bet that's your only inspiration.

Angel stops and stands on the landing in front of the elevator, without pressing a button or turning around.

ANGEL  
So if the Senior Partners are reincarnates of something, do I get taken over when I get to the top?

LIASON  
Can't tell the future. I leave that for the prophets.

ANGEL  
So you don't know everything.

LIASON  
Now, now. Let's not jump to conclusions. I just meant that it could go either way.

ANGEL  
So not all the Senior Partners are reincarnates.

LIASON  
Not all. It all depends on the deeds they do on their way down.

ANGEL  
_(turning around)_  
You mean on their way up?

The Liason opens her mouth and shuts it again. Anya's brow furrows. Angel smiles as he realizes she just made a mistake and steps into the elevator. Cut to:

INT. WOLFRAM AND HART LOBBY – MORNING

Connor, once again looking a little worse for the wear with the neck brace and the various gashes, is sitting on Melody's desk with a silly grin on his face. Melody sits behind him in her swivel chair looking tired and a bit beaten but otherwise all right; Gunn stands opposite Connor with his arm in a sling and a bandage on his head, grinning just as much as Connor. Various people crowd around them, including Alexa, fresh out of hospital and eager to hear about their adventure. Wesley is absent.

CONNOR  
The dragon must have been like forty feet tall. We were on the fourth floor, as we later found out so yeah, he was tall.

EMPLOYEE #1  
Did it breathe fire?

CONNOR  
Not that we saw, but it's possible.

ALEXA  
So what happened, already?

CONNOR  
_(grinning)_  
Well…

Cut to:

INT. HYPERION HALLWAY

CONNOR _(cont'd)  
(looking incredulously at the dragon)_  
Uhhhh… so anyone got any ideas?

GUNN  
Nope.

MELODY  
Running sounds like a good idea.

DRAGON  
Roar!

CONNOR  
I think I'm on board with that plan.

GUNN  
Me too.

The three of them turn and jog at a brisk but not excessively fast pace, since the dragon seems to be too busy roaring to notice that they're not there anymore.

CONNOR  
There is another staircase down at the other end of this hall, right?

GUNN  
Should be, if Scaly here didn't rip it out, too.

CONNOR  
Only one way to find out I—

His sentence is interrupted by a tremendous ripping noise as the wall to the group's left is torn out by a great scaly claw. Connor grabs Melody and pulls her back against the far wall instinctively; Gunn stands where he is and watches as the dragon rears back again and roars. A slow grin spreads over Gunn's face as he realizes something.

GUNN  
I think I just figured something out. You guys follow me as close as possible and look out for blows.

The trio runs along the tattered remains of the hallway the way they were going. The stomp-stomp-stomp of dragon footsteps outside follows them; Gunn suddenly stops and starts running back the other way. Confused, Connor and Melody follow. They all stop a short ways away and watch as the dragon claw goes through the wall where they had turned around. Melody turns around and gapes at Gunn, who grins under the attention.

MELODY  
You…

GUNN  
_(proud)_  
The dragon's blind. It follows us by sense of smell. As long as we double back a lot, we'll have no trouble avoiding him.

MELODY  
…are such a moron!

GUNN  
Say what?

MELODY  
That hallway was the only chance of getting to a staircase! Now we're trapped in a dead-end hallway with a huge dragon on our tails.

GUNN  
Oh. …Damn. I guess that was a pretty stupid plan.

The dragon stomps over.

MELODY  
So what do we do now?

CONNOR  
_(glancing about)_  
I guess we have to jump.

MELODY  
Oh God. You're joking, right?

CONNOR  
Not really. Here.  
_(handing Melody the vial of dimension-jumping juice)_  
I'll carry you off if you make sure this doesn't break.

MELODY  
…Are you sure…

GUNN  
Guys, I know I dug this grave myself, but we don't really have time to negotiate.

Melody nods at Connor, who picks her up swiftly and without difficulty. They stand where they are for a moment longer; just as the dragon looks like it's about to swipe, they run back to where they had originally met the scaly beast.

CONNOR  
All right. On the count of three. Ready? One… two…

ANGEL (V. O.)  
Connor.

Cut to:

INT. WOLFRAM AND HART LOBBY

Angel stands just outside his office looking stern. Connor stops his story and turns to regard his father.

CONNOR  
Yeah?

ANGEL  
Finish your story later. I've got some work for us to do.

The crowd protests, but somewhat passively. Turns out everyone's still scared of Angel.

ALEXA  
But they just got to the… the good part…

ANGEL  
I don't care. We have to find out how the Senior Partners originated. That might lead us to where they are now, which might lead us to how to get the Liason out. I need the earliest written record of Wolfram and Hart we can find.

GUNN  
Sounds like a plan, but don't we need Wes for that?

ANGEL  
Wesley's not here?

GUNN  
Nope, and he's not in his office either.

ANGEL  
_(furrowing his brow)_  
Are you sure?

GUNN  
The lights are out, the office is locked and we can't see him in there, so yeah, pretty sure.

Angel doesn't say anything but rather walks down the hall in the direction of Wesley's office. Gunn, Alexa, Melody and Connor exchange glances and follow him. The rest of the crowd disperses.

INT. HALLWAY

Angel peers in the window and tries the office door. It is indeed locked. The vampire sniffs the air suspiciously and turns to Connor.

ANGEL  
Smell that?

CONNOR  
Yeah, but it's faint. I thought it was just left over from when he was in there earlier and then left. Mostly it's covered up by the smell of scotch, but… yeah, he's in there all right.

Alarmed looks are exchanged throughout the small group. Angel breaks the handle on the door and storms into the office.

INT. WESLEY'S OFFICE

Angel walks quickly toward the desk and rushes forward when he spots an unconscious form. He turns the limp Wesley over and checks for a pulse on Wesley's neck. His fingers meet instead two bite marks. Angel lies Wesley on his back and checks for a pulse in his wrist this time.

ANGEL  
Wes. Wesley.

The close up on Wesley's pale neck is the image we're left with.

END OF ACT ONE


	14. 6x04: Juxtaposition: Act Two

ACT TWO

INT. MEDICAL FLOOR—WOLFRAM AND HART  
ANGLE: Angel's anxious face.

CONNOR (O.C.)  
No one went in or came out of the room?

MELODY (O.C.)  
The cameras in the hall showed no unusual activity after Wesley went in last night until you guys broke in this morning.

GUNN (O.C.)  
What about the camera inside the room?

MELODY (O.C.)  
Angel disconnected a lot of the cameras after you guys got here. It's been offline for days.

CONNOR (O.C.)  
So whatever did this somehow got into the room without using the door.

Scenes of Angel's dream flash by; the reason for Angel's apprehension is now clear.  
ANGLE: Angel's face.

MELODY (O.C.)  
Looks like.

ALEXA (O.C.)_  
(voice shaking)  
_But he's… he's not a vampire.

CONNOR (O.C.)  
No. There's a pulse.

ALEXA (O.C.)  
You say that like he doesn't have much else.  
(silence)  
The… the spirits are talking. They're saying that someone stopped the attack, probably saved him.

ANGEL  
_(turning to face the others)  
_Who?

ALEXA  
She. Her.

GUNN  
The same 'she' that's coming?

ANGEL  
She did this?

ALEXA  
No. Yes, I mean, the she that's on her way, but she was the one that saved him, not attacked him.

CONNOR  
The spirits have come out of hiding then?

ALEXA  
They're pretty apprehensive. They're… crowded around Wesley as we speak.

CONNOR  
Are they saying anything?

ALEXA  
They don't want me to hear.

ANGEL  
Do they know who did it?

ALEXA  
I don't think they were anywhere around. It was just 'her', out of nowhere. They don't like her; they run away when they sense her coming.

ANGEL  
How do they know she saved him and didn't bite him?

ALEXA  
She's a spirit. Invisible and incorporeal. She wouldn't be able to bite.

GUNN  
Then how'd she fight the culprit?

ALEXA  
Look, I don't know, okay? I know what I know and that's it. We have no reason to argue with what the spirits say, they're better informed than we are, regardless of whether we trust them or not.

CONNOR  
Do you know where she comes from?

GUNN  
Or goes, for that matter.

ALEXA  
I don't know! They don't like me. I don't know why not; they liked Lily well enough, and they _really_ like Wesley, but they don't want anything to do with me._  
(sighing)_  
If I knew anything, I'd tell you. I want to know what happened just as much as you do.

MELODY  
_(after a silence)  
_So how long are we going to keep avoiding the truth?

GUNN  
What truth?

MELODY  
I think we know exactly who did this.

CONNOR  
Mel…

MELODY  
It makes sense on all accounts. His office is right beside Wesley's, he's sneaky and stealthy in that way, not to mention the fact that he's a vampire…

CONNOR  
Mel, I don't think so.

MELODY  
Why the hell not, Connor? It's the only explanation from my point of view, and it's not as though he's exactly denying it vehemently anyway.

CONNOR  
One of these tooth marks is blunt. The vampire in question has a fairly severely chipped tooth. Dad, you want to vamp out for a sec?_  
(Angel does; both teeth in tact)  
_It's obvious to me. If no one else is convinced, I'm sure Angel will consent to some sort of scientific thing to prove him innocent. Like a, a tooth mold or something.

ANGEL  
_(weakly)_  
I didn't do this?

ALEXA  
Actually, you might have.

ANGEL  
What?

ALEXA  
_(glancing at Wesley and walking from room)  
_Follow me.

Cut to:

INT. FILES AND RECORDS ROOM

GUNN  
Okay, what are we doing here? 

FILES AND RECORDS LADY  
Miss, can I help you with something?

ALEXA  
Yeah, can you direct me to the newspapers that we've been hiding from Angel?

ANGEL  
Hiding?

FILES AND RECORDS LADY_  
(pointing)  
_Right over there.

Alexa picks up a few papers from a small stack in front of two ceiling-high other stacks and splays them on the desk. Angel has made the front page on each one; they're all dated within the past two weeks. Some headlines mention Angel; all mention Angelus.

ANGEL  
_(skimming a paper)_  
Angelus lives in this dimension?

ALEXA  
As an entirely different entity from you.

ANGEL  
Why didn't anyone tell me about this?

MELODY  
I don't think anyone else knew. I mean, I didn't.

ALEXA  
No, it was just me... and Wesley... and the Senior Partn--

GUNN  
Don't say that.

ANGEL  
Are you talking to them?

ALEXA  
No, God no.

CONNOR  
Are they talking to you?

ALEXA  
...Just the one._  
(beholding the stares she's getting)  
_Look, it's a spirit, okay? Not my fault. Remember how I was involuntarily imposed with this power?

ANGEL  
Can we get to the part where you withheld information from me about my murderous alter-ego?

ALEXA  
The spirit said it was imperative you didn't know about Angelus. I guess the employees here have been doing everything they can to make sure you didn't see a newspaper at all since you got here.

CONNOR  
What about the Inter-dimensional? There should have been something there.

MELODY  
Why? It's standard here. It's not news to other dimensions, this just happens to be a dimension where Angelus exists._  
(off everyone's looks)_  
I really didn't know, it just makes sense.

ANGEL  
Why don't they want me to know?

ALEXA  
They don't want you to disrupt the balance of things here. You arrived, and now you're just supposed to _be_ here. They think that now you'll go after him at all costs, which, in their eyes, would be a waste of time.

ANGEL  
Why did they tell you all this?

ALEXA  
I really don't know.

ANGEL  
And, remind me again, why didn't you tell me all this?

ALEXA  
The spirit said--

ANGEL  
You told Wesley.

ALEXA  
Yeah, well, seeing death all the time has been kinda hard on me. Seeing his girlfriend in me all this time has been hard on him. We talk.

ANGEL  
_(after a silence)_  
Why did you take anything a Senior Partner had to say to heart?

ALEXA  
Because Wesley agreed, and frankly so did I. There's already a lot going on. We get into trouble one by one every few days. You don't need a distraction which, if the papers are anywhere near correct, would probably be pretty futile anyway.

GUNN  
I don't really want to fuel the fire here, but he is Angel. He probably could beat Angelus. A soul's gotta be an advantage, right?

ANGEL  
No way I could beat him on my own. He's ruthless in a way I could never be. Even if I had people by my side, it would be a struggle.

ALEXA  
Plus, it doesn't sound like Angelus has ever been Angel in this dimension. He's a lot more experienced than Angel is--

ANGEL  
Hey.

ALEXA  
--and is probably much worse killer than anyone in this room is accustomed to.

GUNN  
Okay, here's what I don't get. You've only been here for a few months and you know about this. Not your fault, I know, but... Mel's lived here her whole life. Why didn't she know?_  
(no answer)_

FILES AND RECORDS LADY  
_(clears throat)  
_Can I help you with anything?

ANGEL  
_(glancing behind him momentarily)  
_No.

MELODY  
_(comprehending)_  
Yes.

ANGEL  
Or yes.

MELODY  
Why didn't I know? Has someone been censoring what I see my whole life?

FILES AND RECORDS LADY  
_(eyes flipping)  
_Name, please.

MELODY  
Melody Hayshaw.

FILES AND RECORDS LADY_  
(eyes flipping)  
_Melody Petunia Hayshaw, born October 12, 1981 to Roger and Greta Hayshaw of Los Angeles, California. Potential observed by Wolfram and Hart in January of 1982; parents notified, conditioning begun shortly thereafter.

MELODY  
Potential? What potential?

FILES AND RECORDS LADY  
Your potential impact on the events as depicted in the Unulat Prophecies.

MELODY  
Is that it?

FILES AND RECORDS LADY  
Your potential impact on the subjects of the Unulat Prophecies as well as, indirectly, on the apocalypse.

MELODY  
Meaning these guys.

FILES AND RECORDS LADY  
That is what I said, yes.

MELODY  
What kind of impact?

FILES AND RECORDS LADY_  
(eyes flipping)  
_No data found.

MELODY  
_(hesitantly)  
_How much conditioning?

FILES AND RECORDS LADY  
_(eyes flipping)  
_No data found.

Melody, visibly upset, turns around. Gunn moves a hand to comfort her, but she ignores it and heads straight for Connor, who hugs her tightly. Gunn turns his extended arm into a gesture of anger towards files and records; he slams a fist down on the desk.

GUNN  
Hold it, lady. You're files and records. It's your job to know everything.

FILES AND RECORDS LADY  
_(grinning mechanically)  
_That's correct.

GUNN  
Does that mean you're being censored too?

FILES AND RECORDS LADY  
_(eyes don't flip)  
_No data found.

GUNN  
_(stepping back)  
_Angel, I don't mean to sound dramatic, but when files and records doesn't know everything, the apocalypse might be pretty damn nigh._  
(looks around when receives no response)  
_Angel?_  
(looks at Alexa)  
_Where'd he go?

ALEXA  
I don't know. I didn't even see him leave.

Cut to:  
  
INT. WOLFRAM AND HART CELLAR

The elevator dings. Angel steps forward only slightly onto the platform and lets the doors close behind him.

ANGEL_  
(smirking)_  
My death?

LIASON  
_(pretending to have just noticed him)  
_Well, hello there! I'll be right with you in a second, I'm just doing some redecorating.

ANGEL  
Is there something special about me in specific?

LIASON  
You know, you'd be surprised what one can do with a pair of socks. Arrange them in a certain fashion, and it's a surefire way to lighten up any jail cell!

ANGEL  
Answer me.

LIASON  
_(pouting)_  
You never like my shticks.

ANGEL  
I really don't have all day. Can we move this along?

LIASON_  
(smiling)_  
Of course there's something special about _you_, Angel. You're a vampire with a soul! That automatically makes you the number one target of save-the-girl-only-if scenarios. Everyone wants a piece of the hero.

ANGEL  
And if I brought you, oh, say, my alter-ego here... would that suffice?

LIASON_  
(smile faltering)  
_How did you find out about that?

ANGEL  
You might want to talk to your friends the Senior Partners about keeping secrets. Now, if there's one thing to be said in your favour, it's that you've always been honest with me.

LIASON  
I deceived you into thinking I was Anya.

ANGEL  
Yeah, but you only denied it for a few seconds once you were discovered. You're an honest bad guy. So I'm going to ask you one more ti--

LIASON  
Sorry bud, only Angel will cut it.

ANGEL_  
(scowling at the lack of dramatic moment granted)  
_Why?

LIASON  
God, you're dumb. You have a soul. You plus soul equals yes please. Him plus no soul equals totally moot point. Besides, we like Angelus. He's a good assassin for us.

ANGEL_  
(amused)_  
I don't think so. Angelus wouldn't stand to be under anyone's thumb.

LIASON  
Did I say he knew he was killing people we needed dead anyway?

ANGEL_  
(after a beat)  
_So it's really the soul that counts.

LIASON  
Yes, dumbass. That's what I've been telling you for days.

ANGEL  
So if I handed you Angel's soul on a platter...

LIASON  
Oh, no. No, no no. Not allowed. You, sir, cannot pull Angelus' soul from the ether. That doesn't count. It has to have your experience, your track record, your destiny._  
(a beat)_  
Also you can't have a soul on a platter, it has to be in a jar or an entity or something.

Angel stares at the Liason for a second before stepping back into the elevator.

LIASON  
Maybe when you come back I'll demonstrate just how much I'm going to kill you.

Angel smiles sardonically as the doors close. The Liason's eyes shift to her right.

LIASON _(cont'd)_  
You are so completely lucky he didn't try to wring my neck this time.

ANGELUS  
_(stepping out from shadows)_  
Am I really killing people this company wants dead? 

LIASON  
What do you think?

ANGELUS  
Hmm. Guess it's time I watch what I eat.

LIASON  
So, what's the plan?

ANGELUS  
No plan.

LIASON  
That's special vampire code for "everything's intricately laid out", right?

ANGELUS  
Not so much.

LIASON  
Well? What now?

ANGELUS  
What now? Well, you're stuck in that cage, and I'm feeling kind of peckish.

LIASON  
I'm immortal, dumbass. Go eat another one of Angel's friends.

ANGELUS_  
(growling, grabbing the Liason by the throat)  
_Call me dumbass again and we'll see just how far that immortality extends.

LIASON  
You and Angel are just two of a kind for idle threats, aren't you?

ANGELUS  
Hmm.  
_(twists the Liason's neck; she goes down hard)_  
I'd forgotten how much I hate working with others.

END OF ACT TWO


End file.
